The largest-ever cause list - 82 pages with nearly a thousand cases await four benches of the Supreme Court (SC) during the five working days of next judicial week that opens on Monday. Majority of cases are on determination of questions pertaining to various taxes - from income to wealth and property taxes and the excise duty. Over 400 are listed for hearing by the First Bench headed by Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui on the first day of judicial week.
The appeals are being agitated by the taxation authorities against a number of cotton and ginning mills, textile and garment manufacturers, shoe-makers, hosiery factories, chemical plants, tanners, food canneries, sugar manufacturers, herbal medicine producers and even some educational institutions.
Another bulk of 43 cases listed before the same bench for the following day are appeals from the Taxation Department are about the excise duty levied against some engineering companies.
A large number of appeals filed by the former employees of the Utility Store Corporation questioning the decisions of the Federal Service Tribunal. These appeals have been appeared on the various cause lists in the past but could not be taken up by the judges for a variety of reasons.
The cases are fixed for Tuesday before the First Bench.
Asif Ali Zardari has moved the Supreme Court against the quashment of his conviction in an accountability case and enlargement of bail and the First Bench will hear it on the opening day.
The Second Bench has a case to determine whether judges of the superior judiciary having worked for shorter periods than stipulated in the pension rules were entitled to the benefit. One of the five petitioners is Tariq Mahmud, formerly of Balochistan High Court and until recently President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
OTHERS ARE FROM LAHORE AND PESHAWAR HIGH COURTS: The hearing is fixed for Monday and the judges on the bench are Justice Rana Baghwandas, Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Ramday and Justice Falak Sher. A very large number of appeals are directed against the levy of property tax and besides the private citizens, the Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank Limited and Nawabzada Zulfikar Ali Khan Mamdoot is also among the appellants against a judgement of the LHC.
Mamdoot now owns the Mamdoot Villa where the late Father of the Nation stayed during his visits to Lahore.
THE REMAINING TWO BENCHES: a full and the other a division bench have service matters or appeals against convictions under criminal law.
THEY CONSIST OF THIRD BENCH: Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
FOURTH BENCH: Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice M Javed Buttar.
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