Present SC bench, if retained by next CJ, need not start afresh

Panama Papers case

ISLAMABAD: If the present Supreme Court bench was kept intact by the next Chief Justice, Mian Saqib Nisar, it will not be required to hold rehearing of the petitions against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children on account of offshore companies.

“This panel, if retained by the new top judge, will proceed from where the five-member bench had reached,” noted lawyer Barrister Omar Hassan Sajjad said when contacted by The News. “For the moment, this bench stands dissolved as it always happens when a member retires or recuses himself from being associated with for any reason.” 

However, he said, the new chief justice, who will take oath on Dec 31, will decide either to let the four judges continue hearings or constitute a new panel to hold proceedings afresh. It will also be his discretion whether or not to head the bench.

The brief court order issued by the apex court after adjourning the proceedings till the first week of January stated that “these matters” (petitions) “shall not be treated as part heard for the reason that one of its members (Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali) is laying down his robes.” It also thus became clear that the present bench stands disbanded, and that the proceedings would be held anew.

Another lawyer Azhar Siddique believed that the new bench might also consist of five judges with the addition of another justice in place of the outgoing chief justice. He said that all the orders issued by the five-member panel would remain valid.

Frustration and despondency quickly gripped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ranks as they failed to get the decision as early as they had wanted. However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was satisfied over the development in courtroom number one.

The commotion in the PTI and its disapproval of the court decision to postpone the proceedings was also reflected on the social media by its recognized accounts. One of its spokesmen tweeted that he never thought that winter vacation were so paramount as he thought only KG children look for winters with such enthusiasm. This was a clear criticism of the Supreme Court’s annual winter vacation, starting on Dec 18, and their availing by the judges, who did not accept the plea that they should hold proceedings even during these vacation to dispose of the petitions.

PTI lawyer Naeem Bukhari’s announcement that he has instructions from his client, Imran Khan, that the PTI would boycott the judicial commission, if formed, surprised, if not shocked, everyone in the court. After that, Justice Jamali and Justice Asif Saeed Khosa consulted for a few moments and deferred the hearing till the first week of January.

By dismissing the commission, the PTI did not realize and comprehend the dilemma and predicament of the bench, which stated time and again that it can’t hold in-depth investigation and what the two sides have presented to it is insufficient evidence and sketchy documentary stuff. All this material did not enable the panel to reach a conclusive decision and that is why it proposed setting up of commission so that an elaborate probe can be conducted in the matter.

The bench was apparently disposed to constitute the one-man commission but the plan was scuttled by the PTI threat. Imran Khan disdained the commission on the premise that no government institution would render meaningful assistance to the forum because all the departments are being controlled by the prime minister and would not help investigations.

After hearing the adjournment, the PTI chairman declared that they had been stuck up in the litigation for quite some time and now they would go to the public. He thus indicated launching of a new protest campaign once again without learning any lesson from his past movements specifically the abortive attempt to lock down the federal capital on Nov 2.

The threatened boycott of a possible commission by Imran Khan added to a long list of rejections of most important State institutions and prominent constitutional office holders. He has no faith in the parliament as the PTI has boycotted the National Assembly till the decision on the present petitions by the apex court; has refused to accept Nawaz Sharif as prime minister and has again demanded his resignation; for a long time he expressed no-trust in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and showed no-confidence in the National Accountability Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency and Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan. After the surfacing of the Panama scandal, the PTI had campaigned for months seeking establishment of a judicial commission. While hammering this stand, Imran Khan had also filed the present petition in the Supreme Court. Ironically, two key parties to the instant pleas including the Jamaat-e-Islami and Tariq Asad, advocate, apart from the prime minister and his children supported creation of a commission. However, despite the PTI threat, the apex court had no bar to form a commission or itself decide the petitions.