News
Monday, April 11, 2011
Historic judicial proceedings to dominate SC this weekISLAMABAD: Monday will herald as the first day in the upcoming week that would set course for a number of historic judicial proceedings in the Supreme Court (SC).
After 2009, a full court is being constituted comprising the chief justice of Pakistan and all sixteen judges, which will resume hearing of the federation’s plea from Monday seeking a review of certain aspects of a verdict over National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), 2007.
A full court, in its detailed judgment in December 2009, had declared the NRO as an invalid and unconstitutional piece of legislation that never existed.
On April 13, the SC bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani will deal with one of the decision frequently termed by a large section of political stalwarts, jurists and civil society members as “judicial murder” of country’s first democratically elected prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
The country’s top court is set to give its opinion on a presidential reference for revisiting the death sentence passed against ZAB in 1979.
The reference was sent to the SC by President Asif Ali Zardari under Article 186 of the constitution.
In the past, the apex court had given its opinion over presidential references, the most significant one was on August 4, 2005, when a nine-member bench declared several clauses of Hasba Bill relating to powers of anti-vice ombudsman as unconstitutional.
In January 2007, a five-member bench was constituted on a revised reference moved by former president Pervez Musharraf against Hasba Bill passed by the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2006 where the Mutthida Majlis-e-Amal, a conglomerate of religious parties, was in majority.
On Monday, a four-judge larger bench comprising Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez will resume hearing of federation’s review appeal against its decision on the issue of extension of services to six additional judges of the Lahore High Court and Sindh High Court.
The newly adopted process for appointment of judges of superior judiciary as envisaged under the 18th and 19th amendments, especially as the role of a parliamentary committee, was partly challenged and the bench had overruled the committee’s refusal to endorse judicial commission’s recommendations.
A three-judge bench headed by Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on the same day will resume hearing of a constitutional petition regarding protection of lives and property of the people of Balochistan moved by the Balochistan High Court president.
The bench will also hear a suo motu case regarding devolution of the Higher Education Commission. The pleas were filed by professor GA Miana and Professor Attaur Rehman.
On Tuesday, the same bench will take up the pending issue of conversion of public land into residential or commercial purpose in Karachi. The plea was moved by former city nazim Naimatullah Khan.
On April 13, the same bench will conduct proceedings on a suo motu case regarding corruption in Pakistan Steel Mills. The issue of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) containers scam will also come up for hearing on the same day. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk