ISLAMABAD: The children of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday requested the Supreme Court to delay the hearing of their review petitions on the Panama Papers case, which is due to be heard by a three-member of the apex court on Tuesday.
The request submitted to the apex court by Maryam and her brothers Hussain and Hassan Nawaz asks the apex court to form a five-member bench, instead of the three-member bench, to hear the review petitions and consequently delay the hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
The request says that the July 28 decision of the apex court that disqualified Sharif was final and was signed by the five judges who announced it. Therefore, the same five-member bench or a bench of the same size should hear the review applications, the request concludes.
Last month, Sharif’s children and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar had moved a review petition before the SC, questioning its July 28 directions to supervise future proceedings in the trial court.
The petition states that the constitution did not confer upon the apex court the jurisdiction to superintend or oversee proceedings of the subordinate judiciary. 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, the review petition added.
Along with the review petitions, a stay application was also submitted in the court, requesting the apex court to suspend the final operation of the July 28 judgement, in which the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was ordered to launch corruption references against the petitioners, till the petitions were pending.
