The nine-member special Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court seized with a Presidential Reference on the Hisbah Bill passed by the Frontier legislature has been reconstituted by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary.
Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar will now replace Justice Hamid Ali Mirza who is proceeding on leave pending his retirement from the Bench by mid-September.
The change was notified in the cause list for the next week put on the public notice board here on Saturday. The Bench is to take the Presidential Reference on the competence of the NWFP legislature to pass a separate law on accountability under the 1973 Constitution.
The new bench that is going to sit in the First Court Hall is thus be composed of: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Sardar Raza Muhammad Khan, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice M. Javed Buttar, and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad.
At the first hearing here last Monday, the Court had accepted the pleas of Khalid Anwer, Counsel for the NWFP government and Younus Tanoli, the Advocate General of the Province, for time to prepare their cases that was opposed by Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan who represents the President.
The counsel for the secretary of the provincial assembly who is also under notice had also supported the request, saying that the lead counsel, Dr Farooq Hassan, was abroad, and would not be returning before the end of the month. He is expected here on Sunday morning.
Similarly, the Advocates General of other provinces as well as Khalid Anwer is to be here by Sunday evening.
A number of organisations and public interest litigants have meanwhile prepared requests to the Bench for inclusion as interested parties for or against the Presidential Reference. One of those is the Al Jihad Trust that has been active in constitutional and human rights cases in the past.
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