ISLAMABAD: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s children on Monday filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking delay in the hearing of their review petitions, fixed for Tuesday (today), against the Panama Papers’ case verdict.
A three-member bench led by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ehsan is scheduled to take up the review petitions of Nawaz Sharif, his children and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar today (Tuesday).
The application moved by Maryam, Hussain, Hassan and Safdar Awan through their counsel Salman Akram Raja under Order XXXIII, Rule 6 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980, prays that their review pleas should be heard by a five-member bench, instead of three-member bench, and until formation of the five-member bench the hearing scheduled for September 12 be delayed. It pleads the court to hear review pleas against the five-member bench verdict first.
It states, “Since July 28 verdict in Panama Papers case, which disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister – was final not temporary – and was signed and announced by five-member bench, thus the review petitions should also be heard by a five-member bench instead of three-member bench.”
“In terms of legal and constitutional dispensation of the State of Pakistan, a Supreme Court bench of lesser strength cannot upset or pre-empt the decision of a larger bench,” the application added.
The application states, “We had filed two separate review petitions – one against the decision of the five-member bench and the other against the decision of the three-member bench, thus the application against the decision of the five-member should be heard first.”
In their review petitions filed on August 25, the children and son-in-law of Nawaz had questioned SC’s July 28 directions to supervise future proceedings in the trial court.
The petition had contended that the constitution did not confer upon the court the jurisdiction to superintend or oversee proceedings of the subordinate judiciary, adding that the only provision that conferred jurisdiction to superintend subordinate judiciary was Article 203 of the constitution, under which only a high court could monitor the subordinate judiciary.
An application was also submitted with the review pleas, requesting the court to suspend final operation of the July 28 verdict, in which National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was ordered to file corruption references against the petitioners, till the petitions were pending adjudication.
The review petitions had contended that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted to probe the Panama Papers scam was against the basic principles of justice.
Earlier on September 10, Nawaz and his children had filed a similar application raising objections to the Supreme Court’s decision to form a three-member bench to hear their review petitions against its July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.
They had argued that when a five-member larger bench had announced and signed the July 28 verdict, the review petitions should also be fixed before the same bench. In his application the former premier had argued that the decision passed by five-member bench on July 28 should have been passed by a three-member bench as Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmad’s jurisdiction had expired after their dissenting judgment on April 20.
Published in Daily Times, September 12th 2017.
