Last month, Nawaz, through his counsel Khawaja Harris, had filed three similar review petitions under Article 188 of the Constitution. PHOTO: File
ISLAMABAD: A day after the start of the new judicial year, the Supreme Court will hear the review petitions filed by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his children against the apex court’s July 28 decision which disqualified him from holding public office.
On September 12, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and comprising Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh and Justice Ijazul Ahsan will hear the review petitions filed by Nawaz Sharif and his children.
The PML-N’s lawyers, however, are wondering why the review petitions would be heard by only three judges when the July 28 order was issued by a larger five-judge bench.
On the other hand, the PTI’s legal team believes that when the Sharif family have moved two separate review petitions challenging orders by two benches – one of which had three members – there is no harm in fixing the matter before a three-judge bench.
On September 12, the bench will decide on the maintainability of the review petitions. If these petitions are admitted, notices will be issued to all respondents including PTI chief Imran Khan, and Jamati-i- Islami Emir Sirajul Haq for a proper hearing.
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Sources said that if the SC decides to hold proper hearings, the Sharif family’s attorneys will request the bench to stop the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) proceedings.
All the review petitioners also moved separate applications requesting the court to suspend enforcement of its July 28 judgment till the final decision is issued on their review petition.
They submitted that if, during the pendency of the review petition, the operation of the final order of the July 28 order is not suspended, “the steps taken in pursuance thereof, and their implementation as such, shall be seriously detrimental to [Sharif’s] fundamental right to a fair trial, besides working to his prejudice by seriously compromising the constitutional guarantees and mandate of articles 4, 25, and 175 of the Constitution…and rendering his review petition infructuous, and, as such, shall cause [Sharif] irreparable loss”.
However, PTI’s lawyer Chaudhry Faisal Hussain believes that the request is not fit for a review, explaining that while hearing review petitions, the SC generally does not suspend the operation of related judgments. Hussain said that if the SC accepts the review for regular hearing, the PTI’s legal team is ready to appear before the bench to defend the court’s verdict.
Meanwhile, one section of the PML-N remains upset with the party’s media policy of targeting the judiciary for the last couple of months.
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Some senior party leaders and those familiar with the contents of law books are miffed by Sharif’s aggressive speeches against Supreme Court judges during his GT Road rally.
They also believe that the government’s policy of leaking information against the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) and the apex court, such as the purported WhatsApp call by the SC registrar, has already damaged the Sharif family’s case.
Relations between the PML-N government and the Supreme Court have been tense since the six-member JIT, which probed the Sharif family’s overseas business dealings, began calling them in.
Judges were visibly upset by the government’s media campaign targeting the judiciary and the JIT. Their annoyance could also be gauged by their remarks during the hearings of the implementation bench on the Panama Papers case. Even the three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, had pointed out that eight people were targeting the Supreme Court and the JIT on the media.
Interestingly, the Sharif family and the ruling party have a good track record of getting relief from the superior judiciary since 1990.
Challenges for all
This is the first time the ruling family has faced a truly tough situation in the superior courts.
Senior lawyers, however, say that biggest challenge will be for the superior judiciary to end misperceptions regarding its link with the military establishment. Since the announcement of the Panamagate verdict, PML-N leaders have used every trick in the book to establish a holy nexus between the judiciary and the military establishment.
Senior lawyers Khawaja Haris and Salman Akram Raja will appear on behalf of Nawaz Sharif and his children. Interestingly, the SC office has not yet fixed finance minister Ishaq Dar’s review petition for hearing along with the Sharifs’ cases on September 12. It may, however, be fixed in the supplementary cause list.
Senior lawyers believe that the bench may hear the review petition on the issues of Capital FZE and the nomination of a monitoring judge to supervise the NAB proceedings. They opined that the bench should define procedures for the supervision of NAB proceedings by the monitoring judge.
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Generally, there is low likelihood that the SC reverses verdicts while exercising reviews because the scope is limited. In addition, reviews are always fixed before the same bench. But the top court still has the authority to revisit its judgment at any time as there are precedents in this regard, they added.
The Sharif family has already raised legal questions over the constitution of a different bench in Panama Papers case. It has also argued that there is no precedent in the judicial history of Pakistan or the world for four ‘final’ judgments to be issued in one case. The family has requested that this is resolved and the inherent anomalies are removed by reviewing the final order of the court as well as the judgment.
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