Prayer answered: Five-member bench to hear Panama review

SC accepts Sharif, children’s pleas that review petition before larger bench should be heard first

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has formed a five-member bench to hear the Sharif family’s review petitions against the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.

The five judge bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmad, Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh, and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, will begin hearing the review petitions, filed by deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his children today (Wednesday).

Earlier on Tuesday, the apex court’s three-judge bench recommended that the CJP constitute a larger bench to hear the petitions.



When the three-judge bench headed by Justice Khan and comprising Justice Sheikh and Justice Ahsan took up the review petitions filed by Sharif and his children, their counsels Salman Akram Raja and Khawaja Haris submitted that a five-judge bench needed to hear the petitions.

Accepting their request, the bench recommended the same to the CJP. At the same time, Justice Khan observed, “Don’t you think it’s just academic that five judge larger bench should hear the case.”

He also said that if two more members are included on the bench, they would be idle as they did not hear the main case, adding that if the initial three judges changed their view, then the final court order would also be changed.



Justice Sheikh observed that the petitioners themselves have chosen the battleground by filing review petitions against the three judge bench, adding that their grievance is also against the three member bench.

The Sharif family had moved two separate review petitions challenging decisions given by a five-member bench and a three-member bench of the apex court. Relations between the PML-N government and the top court have been tense since the six-member JIT, which probed the Sharif family’s overseas business dealings, began calling them in.

Earlier, speaking after the petitions were filed, senior lawyer Azhar Saddique told The Express Tribune that the Sharif family is raising a non-issue by filing such objections as the three judge bench’s 18-page order is a majority order, which is in the field, adding that the SC rightly fixed the matter before that bench.

Legal experts said that if the SC decides to hold proper hearings, the Sharif family’s attorneys will request the bench to stop ongoing National Accountability Bureau’s inquiries initiated under the July 28 judgment.