Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday formed a 17-member bench for hearing on October 13 in a government petition seeking review of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). The larger bench of the apex court would take up NRO review case on October 13 as a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had adjourned the case for October 27 on government request.

The court will also hear the NRO review plea, and the NRO implementation case, on same day. The court had declared the NRO as void ab-initio in its verdict on December 16, 2009. The NRO was an ordinance issued by General Pervez Musharraf in October 2007. It granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder, and terrorism between January 1, 1986, and October 12, 1999, the time between two states of martial law in Pakistan. It was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in December 2009.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010