ISLAMABAD – Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary on Thursday constituted a 17-member larger bench to hear NRO review petitions and the 18th Amendment cases.
The larger bench will hear Civil Review Petitions No 129 of 2010 (Federation of Pakistan through Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs versus Dr Mobashir Hassan, etc “challenging the NRO”) from April 11, 2011 and will commence hearing on the 18th Amendment case from April 18, 2011.
Notices have been issued in respect of all cases. The CJP also constituted Shariat Appellate Bench to hear Criminal Shariat appeals, petitions, jail Shariat petitions, criminal Shariat review petitions and civil Shariat appeals from April 25, 2011.
The court on October 12, 2010 adjourned the hearing of review petitions on NRO decision on a request by federal government’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa until the first week of November, but could not start the proceedings due to a shortage of judges in the apex court.
A 17-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had delivered judgment against NRO on December 16, 2009. The federal government, former NAB officials and former attorney general for Pakistan Malik Qayyum have also filed review petitions against the NRO judgment.
On October 22, 2010, a larger bench had announced the interim short order after hearing the petitions challenging 27 provisions of the 18th Amendment for four months. The court had referred the new mechanism for appointment of superior court judges introduced under Article 175A to parliament for reconsideration and adjourned proceedings of the 18th Amendment case until the third week of January 2011.
On the recommendation of the court, parliament amended the new procedure regarding judges’ appointments through the 19th Amendment.
