ISLAMABAD, April 5: A Supreme Court bench, seized of APNS's constitutional petition challenging the Seventh Wage Board award, was requested by the petitioner's counsel on Monday to give a 'liberal' meaning to the word 'entertainable' and not declare it as 'not maintainable' after keeping it pending for two years.

The three-member bench, comprising Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Sardar Raza Khan and Justice Falak Sher, which resumed hearing of the petition on Monday, has asked the counsel to first satisfy the court on the issue of its jurisdiction.

Presenting his arguements, Barrister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada tried to convince the court that the petition had already been admitted for hearing and the court should proceed to hear the case on its merits.

The counsel argued that when the petition was originally filed on June 20, 2002, it was returned by the registrar, saying that "the petition is not entertainable as it relates to the grievance of a section of the people and not the whole of the nation, and did not come within the ambit of Article 184(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan".

The counsel for the petitioner stated that the order of the registrar, returning the petition by declaring it not entertainable, was challenged through an appeal.

The appeal was heard by Justice Munir A. Sheikh in his chamber and the judge set aside the order of the registrar and directed the office to "entertain the constitutional petition, register it and fix it before the bench".

The petitioner's counsel said the petition had been pending for hearing for two years, and the court should give 'liberal meaning' to the words 'entertainable, and maintainable' as both were synonymous.

The counsel relied on the Supreme Court judgment in the Mian Nawaz Sharif case to argue that the question of maintainability and merits should be decided together after hearing the case completely. On court query, the APNS counsel indicated that he would try to complete his arguments at or before 11am on Tuesday.