ISLAMABAD, June 14: Supreme Court on Friday announced its detailed judgment, spread over 97 pages, in the referendum case.

The nine-judge panel had disposed of the petitions unanimously declaring the holding of the referendum legal and constitutional.

The panel comprised Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmed, Justice Munir A. Sheikh, Justice Mohammad Farooq, Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal, Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi.

The petitions challenging the referendum were filed separately by Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Supreme Court Bar Association, High Court Bar Association Rawalpindi, Alliance for Restoration of Democracy President Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Shahid Orakzai, Adal Trust, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan President Mohammad Saleemullah Khan, Wasim Rehan and Awami Himayat Tehrik.

In the detailed judgment, the Supreme Court, referring to the doubts of the petitioners that after holding the referendum, Gen Pervez Musharraf and his regime had no intention to hold the elections, ruled that the apprehensions were imaginary, academic, presumptive and hypothetical.

The court ruled that the questions raised were premature and added that the court or the petitioners could not anticipate the course of future events.

Referring to the authority of chief election commissioner (CEC) to hold the referendum, the court ruled that the arguments in this regard were fallacious because they ignored the fact that the provisions of the Constitution were in abeyance.—APP