ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: A petition seeking review of the NRO verdict was taken up by the Supreme Court on Monday, after a break of seven months, only to be adjourned for Tuesday when Senator Babar Awan, who is now representing the federal government, asked for time to prepare the case.
Apparently irritated at the government's tactic, the court reluctantly agreed to let Mr Awan be the fourth lawyer to represent the government, substituting Advocate Kamal Azfar who was present in the building at the time.
However, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said the court would hear Mr Awan's arguments without formally permitting him to be the government's counsel and kept the option open to hand down its ruling on a petition filed by him on Saturday. The petition seeks the court's permission to plead, in place of Mr Azfar, the federal government's stand on the review petition against holding the National Reconciliation Ordinance illegal.
The repeated change of counsel has been perceived by the court as an attempt to delay the hearing which entails simultaneous overseeing of the implementation of the verdict that involves communicating with the Swiss authorities for the reopening of money-laundering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari who the government says enjoys immunity from prosecution.
When the 17-judge full court asked him to commence arguments the counsel came up with another surprise by seeking time to prepare the case.
“We have given two years to the federation in this case,” the chief justice said, but added that it would accommodate him by giving him only a day's break. Mr Awan is required to come prepared on Tuesday.
The chief justice said he wondered why the government had come in defence of a law devised by a dictator and was seeking review of a ruling that had revived a number of cases but none of the accused had put up any grievance before the court.
The court praised the decision of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who was present on the occasion, to boldly face trial to get himself exonerated from charges which had earlier been washed away under the NRO.
“When parliament did not approve the set of ordinances, including the NRO, which were sent to it for consideration by the apex court, why the federal government is now defending the same and what is the problem with it?” the chief justice asked. He also asked whether the government considered itself to be outside parliament.
The chief justice reminded the lawyer that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had also condemned the NRO in her book 'Reconciliation: Islam, democracy and the West'.
Moments after Mr Awan was allowed to present his arguments, he startled the bench by starting reading the verdict on the NRO.
The court insisted that he give his formulations on how the government had been aggrieved by the judgment.
The counsel replied that he had five formulations to present and one of them was reading the judgment.“Unless you give us some formulations to focus on, the court can't go along with you,” Justice Mohammad Sair Ali said, adding that without such an initiative the entire exercise would go haywire.
Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja tried to help the counsel by citing contents from the review petition and said formulations had already been given in it and the court only had to see how he assisted it on them.
Earlier, the court reminded the counsel that substitution of a counsel had always been taken by the legal community in a bad taste and the respect of a senior counsel like Mr Azfar should be vindicated as he had had to disassociate himself from the case in such a manner after receiving threats about which the government had not done anything.
Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali referred to the incident when Mr Azfar had been threatened and asked the counsel whether that was a drama staged to delay the matter. Mr Awan replied that he would not repeat what people outside said, that the proceedings resembled talk shows.