Election delay case: SC turns down govt’s request to form full court

The newly constituted three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Friday rejected the government’s request to form a full court on the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa election delay case.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar, rejected the request put forward by Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan on behalf of the government.

The initial five-member bench comprising CJP Bandial, Justice Ahsan, Justice Akhtar, Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan, and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail was formed to hear the case. It held three hearings on the matter from Monday till Wednesday.

The three-member bench was formed today after two of the five judges of the original five-member larger bench recused themselves.

Justice Khan was the first member to recuse himself which led to the dissolution of the bench.

On Wednesday, an SC bench headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa ordered the postponement of cases being heard under Article 184(3) of the Constitution till the amendments made in the Supreme Court Rules 1980 regarding the discretionary powers of the chief justice to form benches.

Read more: Supreme Court bench hearing election delay case dissolved

Justice Khan concurred with Justice Isa while Justice Shahid Waheed dissented with the majority order of 2-1 in the suo motu case regarding the grant of 20 marks to Hafiz-e-Quran students while seeking admission to MBBS/BDS Degree under Regulation 9(9) of the MBBS and BDS (Admissions, House Job and Internship) Regulations, 2018.

Consequently, on Thursday the bench hearing the election case was dissolved following Justice Khan’s recusal in line with Justice Isa’s order.

After the dissolution of the bench, the apex court announced that the bench would continue hearing the case without Justice Khan.

When the court met today, Justice Mandokhail also recused himself from hearing the case.

Disregarding of judgment

But before the election case hearing was set to resume, the Supreme Court “disregarded” the judgment authored by Justice Isa through a circular issued by SC Registrar Ishrat Ali.