‘Remove legal objections from ZAB reference,’ asks SC

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry remarked during the hearing of Bhutto reference case that he was in favour of re-opening ZAB murder case, but the presidential reference had not framed any legal question, Geo News reported Monday evening.

CJ asked the federal government to eliminate legal errors from the draft of the presidential reference case, urging that legal objections should be removed before formation of a larger bench of Supreme Court to hold hearing.

Also, SC asked the federal government to re-draft President Asif Ali Zardari’s reference.

The SC said the reference should be re-drafted according to Article 186 of the constitution.

A three-member bench chaired by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry heard the case today.

During the hearing, the chief justice questioned the possibility of reviewing the case through the reference already filed. He said legal objections must be addressed before forming a larger bench to hear the case.

The Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry remarked that in the past all the references filed had a clear cut question being asked but that it was unfortunate that this was not the case with this reference.

The Chief Justice also said that he did not know what the outcome of the case would be, but he would raise important questions during the hearing.

Later, the hearing has been adjourned till the 21st of April.

Article 186 of the constitution authorises the president to refer any legal matter to the Supreme Court for its opinion, obliging the apex court to respond.

On Thursday, the chief justice said that the president did not frame a legal question in his reference to the Supreme Court. He said that there were three separate court decisions against the former prime minister and President Zardari has not specified which one he would like to have re-examined.