Sharif family members plead SC to hear review of five-judge bench first
Apex court has set hearing of former PM's family's review petition against three-judge bench tomorrow
September 11, 2017
ISLAMABAD: The children of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif submitted on Monday an application in the Supreme Court seeking the postponing of the hearing into their review petition in the Panama Papers verdict tomorrow.
The Supreme Court had fixed September 12 for hearing of one of the two review petitions filed by the former premier's children against the Panama case verdict against them.
The children's counsel, Salman Akram Raja, submitted the application in the Supreme Court.
The application states that the former premier's children had filed two separate review petitions — one against the decision of the five-judge bench and the other against the three-judge bench's verdict.
The plea submitted on Monday seeks hearing of the five-member bench's judgment first and calls for deferring the review hearing of the three-judge bench, which is to be chaired by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan tomorrow.
On August 25, the former premier's children, Hasan, Hussain and Maryam, and son-in-law MNA Capt (retd) Safdar filed two review pleas in the apex court.
Sources said the review petition states that the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probe was against the basic principles of justice.
There is no accusation or evidence against Safdar regarding the purchase of the Sharifs' London properties but still, the National Accountability Burea was ordered to file a reference against him, the petition claimed.
It has been argued in the review petition that the original five-member bench could not have delivered the final verdict as two judges from that bench were no longer part of the proceedings since the JIT's work was overseen by the special three-member implementation bench.
