The Supreme Court on Thursday constituted a 17-member bench to hear petitions and allied concerns, involving examination or interpretation of the lapsed National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) from Monday (December 7).
Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the bench also comprises Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassadduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Rahmat Husain Jafferi, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
Earlier, on Tuesday (December 1) the Chief Justice announced fixation of cases regarding NRO before a larger bench after considering the proposal by a two-judge bench of the apex court. On August 12, Justice Shakirullah Jan and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad, while hearing a case, suggested formation of a larger bench for hearing petitions in relation to NRO as interpretation of certain provisions of statutes was necessary for a large number of cases.
While interpreting different provisions of the Constitution relating to fundamental rights, the court will bring to an end the speculations on the fate of these cases. The court will address the questions whether the benefits reaped through the ordinance are past and closed transactions or the cases would reopen automatically from the point where these were left without formal application by the prosecution.
The NRO was promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf on October 5, 2007, to provide immunity to leaders and officials from cases registered against them between January 1, 1986 and October 12, 1999. However, soon after the promulgation, the ordinance was challenged in the Supreme Court by Dr Mubashir Hassan, one of the founding members of the Pakistan People's Party and a former bureaucrat Roedad Khan.
The petitioners had argued that the NRO was violative of Article 25 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality for everyone in the eyes of law. In addition, the NRO granted "immediate legislative acquittal" to public office-holders in a discriminatory manner.
The petitioners said the NRO had negated Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution, which disallowed any holder of public office, who was found guilty of corruption or misuse of power, to contest parliamentary elections. The NRO is among the 37 ordinances about which the apex court, in its July 31 decision, decreed that their fate be decided by parliament within 120 days.
However, on November 2, the government decided not to present the controversial NRO bill before the parliament and the ordinance became null and void on November 28. On November 21, the government released the list of the beneficiaries of the NRO according to which a total of 8,041 people, including many bureaucrats, diplomats and government officials, had benefited from the ordinance. SC constitutes 17-member larger bench to hear petitions.
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