KP, Punjab polls delay case: 4-member SC bench to resume hearing today

KP, Punjab polls delay case: 4-member SC bench to resume hearing today

Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): A four-member bench of the Supreme Court will resume the hearing on a case regarding the delay in elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies today (Friday).

The top court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan, and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.

On Thursday the bench was dissolved after Justice Aminuddin Khan recused himself from a five-member bench of the top court hearing the PTI’s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to postpone polls in Punjab and KP.

At the outset of the hearing, when the five-member bench comprising came to the courtroom. The CJP said Justice Amin wants to say something.

“After yesterday’s judgement, I recuse myself from hearing the case,” Justice Khan said.

He referred to a judgement, authored by himself and Justice Isa, issued a day earlier which noted that the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) did not have the power to make special benches or decide its members, and said that all hearings based on suo motu notices and cases of constitutional significance — under Article 184(3) — should be postponed until they are legislated upon.