The bail order mystery
April 20, 2021
Problems with the judiciary took the fore over the weekend when a member of the two-judge bench that ‘granted’ Shehbaz Sharif bail said he never approved of the judgment. The story started midweek when Lahore High Court Justice Sarfraz Dogar issued a short order “unanimously” granting bail to the PML-N president. But a few days later, we learned that the other judge on the NAB appellate bench, Justice Asjad Javed Ghural, refused to sign the order and questioned the unanimity of the order, saying that his opinion was ignored.
Under the circumstances as described by Justice Ghural, the case should have been considered a split decision with no short order issued. The case has now been referred to a referee judge chosen by the LHC chief justice. The as-yet-unnamed referee judge will go through detailed judgments written by both justices and chose one, which will be the ‘winner’.