Pakistan: Hearing of case against PM tomorrow

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The Supreme Court will on August 27 resume the contempt of court hearing against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf as he has been issued notice to appear before the apex court and explain government’s inability in relation to implementation of its verdict on National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). A five-judge special bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed will take up the case. While issuing notice to PM Raja Pervez Ashraf on August 8, the bench said in its order: “We hereby issue notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf under Section 17 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance (V of 2003) read with Article 204 of the Constitution to show cause as to why he may not be proceeded against for committing contempt of this court by not complying with the relevant directions oft the Court”. Besides, other than the special bench, the Supreme Court has also constituted three different benches to hear other important cases during the week commencing from August 27. The bench ‘number one’ comprises Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain; ‘bench number two’ consists of Justice Asif Saeed Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed; while ‘bench number three’ will have Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry. It is vital to mention here that two benches of Supreme Court will hear customs, sales tax, service matters and human rights cases in Karachi Registry during the next week. A bench of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Sarmad Jalal Osmany and the other bench comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Amir Hani Muslim will hear important cases in Karachi from Aug 27.