The Supreme Court has not yet decided how to rule on the appeal from the government.
According to AGP Awan, the Constitution contains “no room for curative review.”
ISLAMABAD:
On Monday, Pakistan’s Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial postponed making a judgement on the government’s appeal, which asked that the curative review reference brought by the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) administration against Judge Qazi Faez Isa be withdrawn.
The appeal seeks to withdraw its curative review petition against a court order that admitted the review petitions contesting the court’s judgement on Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s presidential reference from June 19, 2020, in which the court authorized the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to look into the judge’s family’s assets.
On May 25, 2021, the registrar’s office (RO) had earlier rejected a group of nine curative review petitions submitted by the PTI-led administration on the grounds that they featured “scandalous language.” A second review petition cannot be filed in opposition to a decision that has already been rendered on a review petition, the SC office further said. The RO had called attention to several additional flaws in the curative appeals.
The federal government then filed an appeal with the SC against the RO’s denial of the Justice Isa case’s curative review petition, a hitherto unheard-of legal remedy.
Nevertheless, on March 30, the PDM administration, which is headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, opted against continuing to pursue the issue. As a result, the curative review reference was withdrawn.
Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan stated to press that the government has said that “under our Constitution, there is no place for a second review or curative review” after Chief Justice Bandial finished the in-chamber hearing.
The Supreme Court of India revised its regulations and established a mechanism for curative review as a result of a court decision that was rendered in 2002, he said. “In India, a second review was filed after that court decision,” he said.
As opposed to this situation, when the RO objected on the administrative side and there is a remedy under the regulations, “that revision was followed by court actions,” he explained.
The government did not take advantage of the remedy at the time the reference was submitted, but according to AGP Awan, the current administration is no longer interested in doing so and is seeking to have the appeal withdrawn.
“If the withdrawal order is approved, the office order will be upheld as a result, and that will be the end of it.”
Yet, he withheld any more information regarding what had taken place.
The AGP also failed to respond to a journalist’s inquiry on the constitutionality of a reference against a CJ.
It should be noted that the nation’s top security official had earlier this month stated that the current coalition government may file references against the three SC judges, including CJP Bandial, who heard and made a decision on the petition opposing the postponement of elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
In a conversation with Express News’ anchor Rehman Azhar, Federal Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah had stated, “The idea of filing referrals against the judges cannot be ruled out.”
