ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a government petition seeking review of the court’s July 12 order which directed the prime minister to comply with its judgment in the NRO implementation case, DawnNews reported.

A special bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Athar Saeed heard the petition moved by the federation seeking review of the court’s July 12 order.

During today's hearing, Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the bench that he had held meetings with the prime minister and with the federal law minister, adding that, the government wanted the matter to be resolved "once and for all".

Qadir requested to court to grant the government more time in order to carry out consultations on the matter.

He moreover said that the government had all intentions of implementing the court's directives.

Justice Khosa said the bench could not postpone the hearing of the NRO implementation case to a date later than Aug 27, adding that, on that day the court had summoned Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the show-cause notice issued to him over non-compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling over the Swiss letter issue.

Justice Khosa moreover said that the court only wanted an implementation of its order.

Adjourning the review petition's hearing to an unspecified date, Justice Khosa reiterated that the issue of contempt of court would be taken up by the Supreme Court on July 27.

Earlier on Wednesday, the attorney general had dropped a hint before the Supreme Court that Prime Minister Ashraf might not appear before it on Aug 27 to answer the charges of contempt.

“Had I been the prime minister I would never have come because under Article 248(1) of the Constitution the prime minister is not answerable to the court,” he argued before the bench on Wednesday.

Qadir had also emphasised that the prime minister could not be asked by means of the July 12 order to implement an un-implementable direction given by the Supreme Court in the NRO case.

“The prime minister is not answerable to the court in exercise of his functions and any direction issued by the court becomes meaningless because the Constitution wants the courts to extend sanctity to the office of the prime minister,” he had said.