Hours after Justice Aminuddin Khan recused himself from a Supreme Court bench hearing the PTI’s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to delay polls in Punjab, the SC announced that a new bench will take up the case at 11:30am tomorrow (Friday).
The SC order, read out by the court staff, stated that the decision regarding the members of the bench will be taken on Friday and the case will be decided before a bench that does not include Justice Khan.
In an unexpected development earlier today, the five-member apex court bench hearing the case was dissolved after Justice Khan distanced himself from it.
“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.
The original bench — which had conducted three hearings on the PTI petition — was constituted by CJP Umar Ata Bandial. It was headed by the CJP himself and included Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Khan.
