ISLAMABAD    -      The Supreme Court of Pakistan 
Tuesday appointed advocates 
Farogh Naseem, Salman Akram Raja 
and Zahid Ibrahim as amici curiae 
and issued notices to Pakistan Bar 
Council and Balochistan Bar Council (BBC) to assist court in presidential reference on Reko Diq project.
A five-member bench of the apex 
court headed by Chief Justice of 
Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial 
and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, 
Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya 
Afridi and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail conducted hearing of the 
presidential reference. During the 
hearing, Additional Attorney General 
(AAG) Aamir Rehman informed the 
bench that after the Supreme Court 
judgment in 2013 the Balochistan 
govt started the Reko Diq development project and spent Rs5 to 6 billion. However, it was abandoned after 
the ICSID judgment and money spent 
on development gone wasted. The 
AAG said that in order to save $10 
billion, the federal govt has decided 
to share $900 million to pay to Antofogasta, the mining company, which 
is not interested in the Reko Diq project. He apprised the court that if Barrick Gold which will invest $4.5 billion on the project after sometimes 
find that the project is not feasible 
then Pakistan will have nothing. 
Rehman argued that the federal 
govt is not challenging the apex court 
judgment (2013), adding it’s a massive project and in over a 20 years 
the foreign company will invest huge