In an unexpected development, five judges of the Supreme Court (instead of nine) will on Monday hear suo motu proceedings on the delay in announcing election dates in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. We have resumed.
In a February 23 order, all nine judges remanded the matter to the CJP to reconstitute the bench in view of the additional notes made by Justices Mandhil, Shah, Afridi and Manara. All four arbitrators who wrote additional notes objected to the composition of the bench for several reasons.
Two of these judges also questioned the competence of the SC to apply Section 184(3) in relation to its powers in this case.
CJP Bandial, Justice Shah, Justice Mandokhail, Justice Akhtar and Justice Mazhar heard the case today.
Justice Ahsan and Justice Naqvi – whose inclusion in the original bench was opposed by the coalition government and the Pakistan Bar Council – as well as Justice Minallah and Justice Afridi recused themselves from the bench. “These four judges have shown mercy and retired from the bench,” the chief justice said at the start of the hearing.
A division in the bench also emerged in the very first hearing after Justice Mandokhail, who is part of the current bench, objected to the suo motu notice itself as “unwarranted”. The judge also referred to the audio recordings allegedly featuring a fellow judge – Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi.
