Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Saturday announced to set up a five-member bench to hear the NRO implementation case and a nine-member bench for secret memo scandal on July 12, SAMAA reports.

Sources said the Attorney General of Pakistan would submit newly elected Prime Minister’s reply regarding the reopening of money laundering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari in light of the apex court orders.

On June 28, the SC gave two-week deadline to PM Raja Pervez Ashraf to write a letter to Swiss authorities, which his predecessor Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani denied and embraced disqualification from the office.

According to SC statement, Justice Asif Saeed Khwaja will be heading the bench which comprises Justice Ijaz Afzal, Justice Ijaz Chaudhy, Justice Gulzar and Justice Atahar as members.

The case will be heard on Thursday, July 12, at 2 pm.

MEMO HEARING

The same day, a nine-member bench, headed by Justice Shakir Ullah Jan, comprising Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Tariq Pervez, Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Ijaz Afzal, Justice Ijaz Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar and Justice Athar.

The bench has also summoned Pakistan’s former ambassador to US, Hussain Haqqani, who left for Washington pleading that he would be available to the court on a four-day notice.

This is the first time that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is not part of the bench hearing petitions on memo scam due to week-long hearings of Balochistan unrest case in apex court’s Quetta registry. – SAMAA