ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court is set to resume some important cases, including the Karachi law and order situation case and the Reko Diq mining venture case, in the week commencing November 26.
A four-member bench, comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, will take up the suo motu case regarding law and order situation in Karachi. Two different benches will hear routine cases during the week.
Prominent fixtures for the week also include a petition related to the Reko Diq exploration and mining joint venture in Balochistan; the multi-billion corruption scandal in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL); fortnightly compliance report of the National Accountability Bureau in the Rental Power Projects (RPPs) case and the misuse the Intelligence Bureau (IB) funds.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Gulzar Ahmad, will hear these cases.
The court will hear the IB funds case on November 28. It had earlier delinked the case from the Asghar Khan case for separate hearing after a news report claimed that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party misused Rs270 million from IB funds to form a government of choice in Punjab.
The court has issued notices to the relevant authorities, Attorney General Irfan Qadir and the publisher of The Express Tribune, in this regard.
The court will also resume hearing the Reko Diq mining case from Monday. The International Arbitration Counsel is also hearing the case.
International companies investing in the project took the Balochistan government to the court, which will look into the legality of a lease agreement between the government and the foreign companies.
During last week’s hearing, Khalid Anwar, counsel for the Tethyan Copper Company Pakistan (TCCP), contended that his client had invested $80 million for mining of copper and gold in the vicinity after acquiring the lease license, and requested the court to allow TCCP to start the operation.
Anwer dispelled the impression that TCCP was ‘robbing’ the national mineral resources from Reko Diq, adding that no rules were relaxed while granting a lease license to the TCCP.
During proceedings, counsel for the Jamaat-e-Islami, Raza Kazim and former senator Muhammad Azam Swati requested the court to declare the agreement illegal and allow the provincial government to mine at Reko Diq.
On November 29, the same bench will also take up case related to the NICL scandal, while the out-of-turn land allotment to the Gun and Country Club by the Capital Development Authority has been fixed for November 30.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2012.
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