ISLAMABAD, July 18: The reference filed by President Pervez Musharraf in the Supreme Court against the Hasba Bill under advisory jurisdiction of the court on Friday was the eighth such reference in Pakistan’s judicial history. In contrast, the president of India approached the Indian Supreme Court on ten occasions starting from 1951 to 1999.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the reference on July 25. The Hasba bill was passed by the NWFP Assembly on July 14.

Led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the bench has already served notices on the NWFP government and Advocates General of all the four provinces to appear before the court on the next hearing date.

The references were made to the apex court under Article 186 of the Constitution whenever the president considered it appropriate to seek opinion of the court on any matter of public importance, Dawn learnt officially.

The last reference was filed by former president Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari in 1996 to determine whether the president could appoint judges in the superior courts without the prime minister’s advice. Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister at the time.

During the course of hearing of the reference, president Leghari dismissed Benazir’s second government on charges of corruption.

Shahzad Jehangir, who was appointed Attorney General after the dissolution of assemblies, changed his stance before the court in favour of the president although he was pleading Benazir’s case before her government was sacked.

However, the apex court held that the president was bound to follow the advice of the prime minister on the appointment of judges.

Mr Leghari had also filed a reference through Shahid Hamid about the appointment of judges. However, he had to withdraw the same when the then AG Yahya Bakhtiar objected that he had been bypassed.

Governor General Ghulam Muhammad was the first to invoke the constitutional jurisdiction to seek opinion from Pakistan’s highest judicial forum in 1955 regarding affairs of the then government.

Later he filed another reference to seek recommendation from the court whether the then provincial assembly was rightly dissolved or not.

In 1975, former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto filed a reference to seek the apex court’s opinion whether or not to recognize Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan.

Ex-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan also filed two references under the advisory jurisdiction before the Supreme Court in 1989. The first reference was filed about the utilization of federal and provincial consolidated funds after the lapse of a period of 120 days, while the second reference was filed on the question whether the president or the prime minister was competent to appoint judges of the superior judiciary.

The president, however, withdrew the second resolution after the matter was amicably resolved between the head of the state and the then chief executive.