ISLAMABAD (APP): The Supreme Court has constituted a five-judge larger bench to commence hearing on a presidential reference seeking the court’s opinion whether ‘open ballot’ for Senate elections would help acknowledge the respect of choice and desire of the citizen voters on Monday (January 4).
The five-member larger bench would be headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Yahya Afridi.
Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan would represent President Dr Arif Alvi.
On December 23, President Arif Alvi, after approving the proposal of the prime minister, had filed a 11-page reference in the Supreme Court under Article 186 of the Constitution relating to the advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and sought its opinion on holding the upcoming elections for the upper house of the Parliament through open ballot and show of hands.
SC forms three larger, a special, six regular benches for this week: Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed has constituted three larger benches, a special bench and six regular benches at the principal seat Islamabad to hear a number of important cases during the next week, starting from Monday.
On Monday, a five-member larger bench headed by the CJP and comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Yahya Afridi will hear the reference filed by President Dr Arif Alvi under Article 186 of the Constituion of Pakistan regarding elections for the members of the Senate of Pakistan.
On Wednesday, a five-member larger bench headed by Justice Mushir ALam and comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan will hear petitions of different politicians regarding elections and fake degrees.
On Monday, a five-member larger bench headed by Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik and comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijaz UL Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah will hear appeals of different accused against life terms and death sentences.
On Tuesday, a three-member special bench headed by the CJP and comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Yahya Afridi will hear a suo moto review petition on the court direction passed in Civil Petition No.314/2019 regarding grant of bail to co-accused in Civil Petition Nos.258, 260, 268 and 457 of 2017 and delay in trial of cases by the accountability courts in the light of Section 16 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 requiring decision of NAB cases within 30 days.
The first bench is comprised of Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ijaz Ul AHsan and Justice Munib AKhtar while the second bench is comprised of Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Yahya Afridi.
The third bench is comprised of Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi. Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan will be members of the fourth bench, while the fifth bench will consist of Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik and comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah will form the sixth bench.
The benches will hear many important cases including service and pension matters of government employees, educational institutions matters, labour cases, appeals against death sentences and life imprisonment, appeals against acquittal of accused in murder and corruption cases, bail appeals in NAB cases, election petitions of different politicians, allocation of reserve seats to women in Islamabad Capital Territory, CMA for Implementation of the Judgment in Suo Moto No.1 of 2014 regarding Rights of Minorities, Govt. of K.P. through Chief Secretary, Peshawar and others vs. Malik Zaheer-ud-Din Babar and others regarding striking of civil servant amendment Act 2019 and enhancement of age of retirement, de-notification of Illegal appointments made by the Supreme Appellate Court, Gilgit Baltistan, case regarding setting aside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019 being Parallel Legislation, appeals filed by the Sindh government and American journalist Daniel Pearl’s parents challenging the acquittal of the previously convicted men by the Sindh High Court(SHC), bail after arrest appeal filed Secretary Union Council ICT allegedly involved in embezzlement and misappropriation of funds and recruitment of ghost em-ployees, Hussain Lawai’s post arrest bail plea in fake bank accounts/money laundering case, writ petition against conviction and sentence according to Pakistan Law, appeal against life sentence conviction awarded by the Military Courts, application seeking status of Edward College Pesha-war, post-arrest bail plea filed by former DG Lahore Development Authority Ahad Cheema and according to NAB the petitioner from year 2001 to 2018 allegedly made various expenditures and also purcahsed/ owned the movable and immovable properties/ investments/ funds/ assets in his own name and in the name of his benamidars/ dependants having acquisition cost of Rs.449,-511,312/- approximately and market values of Rs.6-00 million approximately, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan appeal for appointing Judicial Comm-ission to probe into the incident of murder of Ms. Parveen, Social Worker/ Director Orangi Project and report on behalf of Director General FIA in SMC No.6/2017 in CPLA No.1-331/2017 regarding Forensic Audit of Housing Societies.
