Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Friday said that law related to the scope of review should be framed carefully with the advice of the Attorney General for Pakistan as he has experience in litigations.
The CJP wondered whether a review could be merged with an appeal as he expressed reservations about the newly introduced Supreme Court (Review of Judgments and Orders) Act 2023.
“Some grounds should be added for reviewing the judgments given under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution,” the chief justice said, “otherwise, that would mean rehearing the case.”
Nonetheless, the CJP said that the court would welcome the decision to provide a remedy in judgments decided under the original jurisdiction provisioned by Article 184 (3) of the Constitution.
In May, a three-member bench headed by CJP Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar was hearing the Election Commission of Pakistan’s review petition against its April order with regard to elections in Punjab when the AGP revealed that a new law enlarging the scope of review petitions had been enacted.
Subsequently, the apex court decided to hear the petitions filed against the review law together with the poll authority’s review plea.
During the proceedings today, AGP Mansoor Awan defended the new law and said that review jurisdiction is altogether different as it posits that the original bench members would be included in the bench reviewing the case.
