In an unexpected development, five judges of the Supreme Court — instead of a nine-member bench — on Monday resumed hearing the suo motu proceedings regarding the delay in the announcement of a date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The original bench included:
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial
Justice Ijazul Ahsan
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah
Justice Munib Akhtar
Justice Yahya Afridi
Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi
Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar
Justice Athar Minallah
The bench has been reconstituted to a five-member bench after four judges — Justice Ahsan, Justice Afridi, Justice Naqvi and Justice Minallah — disassociated themselves from the suo motu hearing. All four have written dissenting notes in the Feb 23 order.
Coalition government as well as the Pakistan Bar Council had objected to the inclusion of Justice Ahsan and Justice Naqvi at the previous hearing on Feb 24, while division in the bench had emerged in the very first hearing after Justice Mandokhail objected to the suo motu notice itself as “unjustified”.
