The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday put off hearing till date in office on the pending presidential reference seeking a revisit of the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s death penalty case.
A nine-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed deferred proceedings on a presidential reference sent to apex court under Article 186 invoking its advisory jurisdiction.
During the course of proceedings, the bench was apprised that Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel for the referring authority, had submitted an adjournment plea, as he was in Karachi to attend the funeral of former law minister Iqbal Haider, who died on Sunday.
The bench accepted his plea and told his assistant Ali Gohar that they had received a letter from the referring authority nominating Aitzaz Ahsan as counsel in the pleading, but they would require an acceptance from the counsel as well because he would no longer appear as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case.
The CJP told him that they would nominate some other lawyer from Punjab in his place as amicus curiae.
In a related matter regarding the temporary suspension of practicing license of Babar Awan, who previously appeared as counsel in ZAB’s case, the bench also deferred proceedings till date in office. The bench in its order said that his application would be heard when the requisite bench of 11 members was constituted as his license suspension order was passed by the said bench. The bench also directed its office to put up the matter for constitution of the required bench.