A five-judge special bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa adjourned hearing in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict implementation case till October 5 after Farooq H Naek, Federal Minister for Law, sought time to sort out court's objections to the draft.
The bench ruled that the adjournment till October 5 be treated as the last adjournment. "We expect that no further delay would be sought in the matter as further delay may infringe upon the bonafides of the federal government prompting us to proceed on the matter of contempt forthwith," Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa noted down in the court's order.
Initially rejecting the Law Minister's plea to hear the matter in Chamber, Justice Khosa told him that whatever he wanted to say, he must say it in court with a view to ensuring transparency. Naek submitted, "It is a sensitive matter which cannot be discussed in the open court." He further contended that government's counsel Wasim Sajjad would also accompany him to judges' chamber.
Subsequently, the bench rose for a short break for consultations over the draft of the letter and soon after called Law Minister along with Wasim Sajjad. After an hour, the bench reassembled and Justice Khosa observed that some of the contents of the draft did not meet the requirement of para 178 of the judgement in the petition of Dr Mubashar Hassan.
Naek, however, sought time till October 5 in order to shape up the draft of the letter in pursuance of para 178 of the NRO judgement. "We had adjourned the hearing till September 26 to enable the government to make efforts to remove deficiencies," Justice Khosa said in the order, adding that "the revised draft has been produced by the Law Minister and later on the request of Farooq H. Naek we assembled in the Chamber to attend to his explanation and found that some of deficiencies were not removed". Naek assured the bench that the draft would be further improved to meet the requirement of para 178 of NRO Judgement and sought adjournment till October 5. The Hearing of matter was adjourned till October 5.