Informing the stakeholders: Supreme Court orders land reform case to be advertised

Hears petition seeking nullification of the 1990 verdict of the SC appellate bench.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Monday directed federation and provincial governments to advertise in national newspapers regarding land reforms case to create awareness among the stakeholders.

A nine-judge special bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the case filed by seven parties represented by senior lawyer of the apex court Abid Hassan Minto, who was seeking the nullification of an earlier 1990 verdict of the apex court on agricultural reforms.

The bench observed that it was a matter of interest to farmers and thousands of people could become party for and against this case. The petitioner Minto stated that he had no objection if any citizen of the country wanted to become a party in the case; because the interest of millions of farmers was attached with the constitutional petition.



In reply to the court query as to who would pay for the public advertisement, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Muneer A Malik said it was a provincial matter.

“The provinces would pay for the advertisements and the state-owned media will run them,” the AGP said, adding that he had no objection to such advertisement.

The court in its order stated that the office of the court would prepare the advertisement and the federation and provincial governments would get it published in newspapers for information of farmers and other parties concerned.

“Every citizen can become a party in the case and the authorities concerned should complete work regarding publication of the advertisement within two weeks and the case would again be fixed for hearing,” the court ruled.

The court also accepted for hearing a petition submitted by Advocate Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, who appeared before the court and submitted the petition on behalf of various farmers’ organisations.

An appellate bench of the apex court in 1990 handed down a verdict on land reforms and termed the idea contrary to Islam. The petition filed by Minto against the verdict under Article 184 (3) asks the court to set aside the earlier judgment.

Senior lawyers of Supreme Court Abid Hassan Minto, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Khawaja Haris, Makhdoom Ali Khan, Abdul Latif Khan Afridi as well as the AGP and the advocates general of all four provinces appeared before the court for hearing of the petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2013.