ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of the presidential reference on the Rekodiq agreement till Tuesday.
A five-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, and Justice Jamaal Khan Mandokhel heard the presidential reference filed in the case. On the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the president had filed the reference to seek the top court’s opinion on the Reko Diq settlement agreement.
During the proceedings, Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial said that the government had to sign the Rekodiq Agreement by December 15. He said that the court wanted to complete the hearing of this case early so that it could had appropriate time to comment.
Justice Muneeb Akhtar asked the government lawyers to satisfy the court whether the amendment in the law for the Reko Diq project was valid or not. He said it needed to be clarified whether the Minerals Act 1948 was federal or provincial. He asked if the Minerals Act 1948 was a federal law and how a province could amend it. He said that laws were either provincial or federal. Provinces adopted and amended federal laws, he added.
Justice Jamal Khan asked whether the legislation made for the Reko Diq project would be applied in the rest of the provinces or not. When the government was working so hard, it would have amended the federal law as well, he added.
Additional Attorney General Aamir Rehman said that the draft of the Minerals Act 1948 still needed to be approved by the Balochistan Assembly. The Balochistan government and the opposition had unanimously passed a resolution on the legislation related to Rekodiq. He said there was no possibility of corruption in the Rekodiq project as contracts and negotiations were being made openly and transparently in the Rekodiq project.
He said that the Government of Balochistan was amending the Balochistan Minerals Act 1948, relating to the province. APP
