The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Barrick Gold Corporation as well as other federal and Balochistan government authorities, and the Pakistan Bar Council on the maintainability of the presidential reference regarding Reko Diq.
Last week, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial constituted a five-judge larger bench to hear the presidential reference on the Reko Diq deal.
On Tuesday, the bench of the apex court led by CJP Bandial took up the presidential reference, wherein Additional Attorney General Chaudhary Amir Rehman appeared on behalf of the government. As per the details, judges from all provinces were on the bench. These include Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Aijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Yahya Afridi.
It is pertinent to note that President Arif Alvi, on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, had filed a reference in the SC to get validation for the new Reko Diq project deal under Article 186 of the Constitution.
