News
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Govt to raise objection on formation of bench to hear NRO review plea* Bench constituted in violation of SC rules
* Bias evident from haste shown in case
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to raise objections on the “formation against rules” of a five-member Supreme Court bench taking up its review petition in the NRO implementation case today (Wednesday).
The objections will be raised by Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir during the hearing of the case before the bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.
Other members of the bench are Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed. Justice Osmany replaces Justice Ijaz Ahmed in the bench.
It has been learnt that the attorney general will argue the case aggressively, expressing reservations over the replacement of judges in the bench.
Advocate Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, who is assisting the attorney general in the case, told Daily Times that the bench had been constituted in violation of the Supreme Court’s Rule 26, Order 8, as a review petition could be heard by the same bench that had originally issued the judgement.
“Discrimination is evident from the fact that the Arsalan Iftikhar case was adjourned until after Eid due to non-availability of one judge, but this case has been fixed on priority basis beyond any reasonable understanding,” he stated. The counsel said an impression had established that bias was evident from the haste shown in the case.
Regarding the government’s objections, former attorney general Shah Khawer said there was no legal issue if one member of a bench was not available during the hearing of a review petition if the judge who authored the judgement was present in the bench.
He, however, said that if the government raised objections, the court should adjourn the case until after Eid.
On the other hand, senior lawyer Tariq Mahmood said the show-cause notice against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf could be withdrawn if the government succeeded in convincing the court about its stance against the July 12 order. “But there are very small chances [of success] in review matters,” he added. On July 12, the court had ordered the prime minister to write a letter to Swiss authorities to open cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk