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Summary
A full bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday resumed hearing of the most crucial cases: implementation of court ruling vis--vis NRO and governments review petition in this respect. A 17-member larger bench of the SC includes Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Muhammed Sair Ali, Justice MA Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Rahmat Hussain Jaffery, Justice Tariq Pervaiz, Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday. During the course of hearing, the court ordered Latif Khosa, governments nominated counsel to defend the NRO cases, to file a separate application in the court for change of counsel. Latif Khosa, the former advisor to the PM, has said that he ahs been issued a letter of authority by the law ministry to defend the government in the NRO cases. Supreme Court maintained that action would be taken against the persons who dared to appoint Adnan Khawaja as chief of OGDCL. Justice Javed Iqbal said that the court did not want to damage the system, but we cannot do anything if the system wants to commit suicide, he added. When told by Adnan Khawaja that his qualification is just FA, Justice Saqib Nisar quizzed that how come an FA pass person is made chief of a big authority whose budget is billion of rupees. The court observed that unemployment is rampant in the country but unfortunately the government made a convict an OGDCL chief. The CJ said that the NAB has not confiscated properties of Adnan Khawaja and Brig (r) Imtiaz.The Court observed that the government should remove all the ineligible people holding key posts. Meanwhile, the Federation has filed another review petition seeking change in counsel that was earlier denied by the superior court. The NRO Review petitions include those filed by the federal government, former NAB Chairman Naveed Ahsan, former prosecutor general Dr Danishwar, former additional prosecutor general Baseer Qureshi and former attorney general Malik Qayyum. Earlier, the SC rejected the governments plea for changing its lawyer in the NRO review case and refused to allow more time to the government. The court decided that the case would be heard on October 13. The government, through its petition, had taken the plea that Kamal Azfar, the counsel for Federation, had been appointed as adviser to the prime minister and due to this reason, he could not pursue this case under the Constitution, therefore, more time be allowed to the government to appoint the new counsel. Sources said that there was no possibility that the government would send a letter to the Swiss government to reopen the cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. The government would stand by its stance. The hearing into NRO implementation case has been adjourned till tomorrow (Thursday) while the review petition in this regard would be resumed on November 1. Govt cannot fool SC: Athar Minallah Senior Advocate Athar Minallah, while talking to Dunya News, said that the government has made a blunder by filing a petition seeking change of counsel first. The government could not fool the SC as the latter is working under the law and the Constitution. Kamal Azfar, who made a huge damage to the NRO case by not taking any clear stance, has been made head of national disaster management of the country. SC has the authority to get its rulings implemented.
