Islamabad: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry on Wednesday constituted an eight-member larger bench of the
apex court to hear the intra-court appeal of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani against the SC decision to indict him in contempt of court case.
The Chief Justice would chair the bench which is consist of
Justice Shakir-ulallah Jan, Justice Khelji Arif, Justice Tariq Pervez,
Justice Jawad Awais Khawja, Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Ameer Hani and
Anwar Zaheer Jamali while no judge was included in the bench who have
given February 2 verdict.
The apex court on February 2 summoned
Yousuf Raza Gilani to appear on February 13 to face indictment,
impatient over the government’s refusal to re-open corruption cases
against President Asif Ali Zardari.
On Wednesday, prime
minister’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan filed intra-court appeal in the apex
court against the SC larger bench decision with the request to fix the
matter for hearing on Friday, Feb 10.
However, the apex court
offered the prime minister’s counsel that the matter could be fixed for
Thursday, saying that the court would be preoccupied on Friday. The
counsel positively responded to the offer, saying that he will be
available even on Thursday if the court fixes the matter for hearing.
Earlier,
a seven-member bench headed Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk had summoned the
prime minister for formally framing charges in contempt of court case
for government failure to implement SC verdict on NRO case. Earlier,
Supreme Court on Wednesday formally adopted Prime Minister Syed Yousuf
Raza Gilani’s appeal against contempt notice for hearing today
(Thursday).
The Supreme Court of Pakistan would begin hearing
intra-court appeal filed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani through
his lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan against apex court verdict of indicting him in
contempt of court case.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry while deciding another plea forwarded by Aitzaz Ahsan,
requesting court to hear the appeal as earlier as Feb 10, suggested the
counsel that the court was ready to hear the appeal on Thursday if
agreed by the petitioner as on Friday it would be unable to do so due to
its busy schedule. Online
