A 17-member full bench of Pakistan's Supreme Court hearing the two cases related to a landmark constitutional reforms package and a controversial graft amnesty, that may trigger a stand-off between the judiciary and the executive was adjourned today.
The larger bench of the apex court headed by chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry took up 15 constitutional petitions challenging provisions of the 18th constitutional amendment but put off the issue till May 31 as the government failed to submit its response.
The same bench subsequently took up review petitions filed by the government against the Supreme Court's order striking down the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), a graft amnesty that benefited President Asif Ali Zardari and over 8,000 others.
This case was adjourned till June 7 after the government made a request to change its lawyer.
When the bench began hearing the petitions challenging the 18th constitutional amendment, the government’s counsel requested the court to give him two to three days to submit a response.
He acknowledged that the government should have submitted a reply within the deadline set by the apex court.
Chief justice Chaudhry asked how the hearing could be conducted without the government submitting its. The bench then put off the hearing of the petitions till May 31.
These petitions have challenged various provisions in the landmark reforms package, including the renaming of the North West Frontier Province as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and a new method for appointing members of the superior judiciary.
In the second case, the advocate on record Raja Abdul Ghafoor said the government wanted Kamal Afzar to appear on its behalf instead of Masood Chisthi.
The bench raised several queries in this regard before putting off the matter till June 7.
Political circles were abuzz with speculation about a possible stand-off between the executive and judiciary during the hearing of these two cases.
The Pakistan People's Party-led government appeared to be on a collision course with the Supreme Court after it refused to reopen graft cases against Zardari in Switzerland in the wake of the annulment of the NRO last year.
Over the weekend, prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made an attempt to defuse the tensions between the executive and the judiciary by speaking on the phone with chief justice Chaudhry.
