Presidential reference: SC reserves order on composition of bench

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on the composition of bench that will hear review petitions against the SC judgment against the presidential reference. A six-member bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial heard the review petitions filed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, his wife, various bar councils and associations.

The counsel for all the parties and Justice Isa's wife Sarina Isa prayed that the same bench, which had rendered the judgment against the presidential reference, be constituted and the judges who wrote dissenting notes also be included in the bench, to the review petitions.

Munir A Malik, representing the apex court judge, Justice Qazi Faez, through a video-link from the Karachi Registry, argued that in the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto murder's case seven judges heard the case. He said four out of seven members awarded death sentence to Bhutto, while the remaining three wrote their dissenting notes.

He contended that the ZAB's review was posted before the same bench, which heard the main case. Justice Bandial asked the counsel whether he had read Justice Dorab Patel's note through which the late judge had stated that for judicial dignity and practice of the court, he did not express opinion in the review petition.

The judge further asked him "if you want in line with that note your prayer is allowed."

Munir replied: "let this be determined by a larger bench."

According to him, Order XXVI Rule 8 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1980, prescribes that the application for review shall be posted before the "same Bench" that delivered the judgment or the order sought to be reviewed.

Rasheed A Rizvi, appearing on behalf of the Sindh High Court Bar and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), through a video-link from Karachi Registry, said let the proposition of Dorab Patel be defended by a larger bench.

Sarina Isa said that she was seeking a review not only of the majority judgment but also the two other judges' judgments. She requested the bench to provide the transcript of the submission she had made before the bench during the hearing of the petitions against the presidential reference.

Justice Bandial asked her to apply for the copy of transcript in the SC Office, and advised that she should engage a lawyer to assist her. Sarina again said the chief justice [Gulzar Ahmed] who constituted the bench to decide the composition of the bench for hearing of the review petitions was also one of the respondents in her petition against the apex court's judgment.

The bench said it would pass an order after it received the written arguments of the Supreme Court Bar Association President, Latif Afridi, and examining the questions raised by the counsel for other parities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020