SC accepts Sharif family's plea for five-judge bench to review Panama case verdict

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that a five-judge bench will be formed to hear the review petitions of Nawaz Sharif, his children, son-in-law and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar against the July 28 Panama Papers case verdict.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijazul Ehsan, was hearing a plea submitted by the former prime minister's children against the hearing of their review petition by a three-member bench instead of a five-judge bench. 

The judges are the same as those on the special implementation bench that oversaw work of the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT). 

During the hearing, the counsel for Nawaz's children, Salman Akram Raja, pleaded the court to form a five-member bench to hear their review petitions. He also pleaded that their review petition against the judgment of the five-member bench be taken up first.

Justice Ejaz observed that the three-judge bench gave the majority verdict in the Panama Papers case and that the decision would not have been different had the three-judge bench given a verdict in the case.

However, the bench accepted Raja's plea and sent to the chief justice a request seeking formation of a five-judge bench. 

The hearing was then adjourned till tomorrow. Later in the day, the five-judge bench was announced. It will be headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and include Justice Gulzar Ahmed as well as the three judges who were set to hear the case today. 

During Tuesday's hearing, the counsel of Nawaz, Khawaja Harris, was also present and presented his arguments. 

After the hearing, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq addressed the media. He said the JI has decided to take the fight against corruption to the streets as well as the Parliament and courts. 

"The entire nation needs to fight this fight," said Haq, one of the three petitioners in the Panama Papers case. 

Nawaz's children seek five-member review bench 

Nawaz's daughter Maryam, sons Hussain and Hasan, and son-in-law MNA Captain (retd) Safdar, moved an application in the apex court on Monday praying that their review pleas be heard by a five-member bench, instead of the three-member bench, and that the hearing be delayed till the formation of the five-member bench.

The children of the former premier reminded the court that they had filed two separate review petitions — one against the decision of the five-member Panama case bench and the other against the decision of the three-member implementation bench, thus the application against the decision of the five-member bench should be heard first.

They pleaded the court to hear the review pleas against the five-member bench verdict first. They contended that since July 28 verdict that disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister was final, and was signed and announced by a five-member bench, therefore, the review petitions should also be heard by a five-member bench instead of a three-member bench.

The application further stated that the same five-member bench or any other bench of the same size should be constituted to hear the review applications against the five-member bench verdict.

“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," they contended.

Nawaz's review petition

On August 15, the former prime minister filed three petitions in the Supreme Court to review the Panama Papers verdict which resulted in his disqualification.

The petitions pleaded the apex court to dismiss the petitions filed by Sheikh Rasheed, Imran Khan and Siraj-ul-Haq.

The former prime minister, through his petition, argued that the decision passed by the court on July 28 should have been passed by a three-member bench as Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed's jurisdiction had expired after their dissenting judgment on April 20.

"That by signing the Final Order of the Court dated 28.07.2017, the hon’ble two Members of the “Bench” have actually passed two final Judgments in the same case, which is unprecedented in judicial history," said the appeal filed, a copy of which is available with Geo News.

The petitions also called the commendations and appreciations of the JIT "a gross transgression" of the former prime minister's right to a fair trial.

The former premier has also filed a request before the apex court to issue a stay order on the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict.

Ishaq Dar's review petition

On August 21, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar filed a review petition against the Panama Papers case verdict.

Dar’s petition was filed by lawyers Shahid Hamid and Dr Tariq Hasan, who requested the apex court to null and void it's July 28 decision and to halt the NAB references against Dar till the verdict on the review petition.

In the nine-page review petition, Dar objected on the working of Panama case JIT, stating “the JIT self-evidently exceeded its mandate by opining on whether or not Petitioner’s assets were disproportionate to his known source of income and this august Court has regrettably erred in law…. in passing a NAB reference against the petitioner on the basis of a JIT report that was way beyond its mandate.”

The finance minister in his appeal also mentioned that Article 184 (3) of the Constitution cannot be used to usurp basic human rights of an individual, further adding that a three-member bench heard the Panama case after the submission of the JIT report, but the final decision was given by a five-member bench.

Dar also said that the appointment of a judge to monitor NAB’s proceedings will affect the trial proceedings.

Sharif children, son-in-law file review pleas

On August 25, Nawaz's children and son-in-law also challenged the apex court's July 28 verdict. 

One review petition was filed against the three-judge decision and another against the five-judge decision of the apex court.

There is no accusation or evidence against Safdar, Nawaz's son-in-law, regarding the purchase of the Sharifs' London properties but still NAB was ordered to file a reference against him, the petition claimed. 

It said further that the posting of a monitoring judge to oversee implementation of the verdict is against the law, explaining that the accountability court cannot operate independently after the appointment of an implementation judge.

The petitioners claim that their basic rights have been infringed upon as their objections to the JIT's final probe report were not taken into consideration. Moreover, it is stated that the JIT investigation was incomplete and thus cannot be used as a basis for filing a NAB reference.

It has been argued in the review petition that the original five-member bench could not have delivered the final verdict as two judges from that bench were no longer part of the proceedings since the JIT's work was overseen by the special three-member implementation bench. 

The Panama Papers case verdict 

Nawaz was disqualified under Article 62 (1)(f) of the Constitution by the Supreme Court on July 28.

Announcing its verdict in the high-profile case, the five-member bench had unanimously disqualified Nawaz for failing to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nominations papers for the 2013 General Election, stating that this meant he was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’, as per the Constitution.

In the verdict, all five judges ruled to send references against Nawaz Sharif, his children, son-in-law and Dar to an accountability court.

The court also ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference against the accused in an accountability court in six weeks and directed for the trial to be wrapped up within six months.

The NAB, as per the directives, has filed the references in the accountability court of Islamabad.