SC requested to hear review petitions against decision of five-member bench
September 09, 2017
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif submitted an application on Saturday in the Supreme Court, requesting the review petitions filed against decision of the Panama case five-member bench be heard first.
As per the application, it has been stated that one of the review petitions argues that the five-member bench should not be given the authority for the final order. Instead, the three-member JIT bench must have the jurisdiction to render the final judgment in the Panama case, states the application.
One of the reasons stated for the request reads that since the five-member is the larger bench, the smaller three-member bench would not be able to upset or preempt the former’s decision.
On Saturday, the Supreme Court issued an amended cause list scheduling for hearing only the four review petitions filed by the Sharifs against decision of the three-member Panama case Joint Investigation Team. However, a hearing has not been scheduled for the main eight review petitions against the decision of the five-member bench.
When contacted, former president Nawaz Sharif’s lawyer Khawaja Harris told Geo News they could not understand why hearing over review petitions has been scheduled before the three-member bench when all the judges of the five-member bench were available.
Harris said they filed four review petitions against the decision of the three-member bench in order to avoid legal glitches in the proceedings.
Although justices Asif Saeed Khosa and Gulzar Ahmed will be present in Islamabad in the coming week, a hearing has been scheduled before the three-member bench of Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh and the monitoring judge, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal.
While raising a legal point, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, Raja Amir Abbas, said if the three-member bench rejects the four review petitions filed by the Sharifs, the main eight ones that have not been scheduled will become ineffective and automatically be closed.
The three-member JIT bench had declared Nawaz disqualified over the salary issue from Capital FZE. The apex court’s decision was then announced by the five-member bench.
The Supreme Court has fixed the date for hearing the review petitions filed by Nawaz and his children against the Panama case verdict. The three-member bench of the apex court will hear the petitions on September 12.
