A new bench of the Supreme Court will be formed tomorrow to take up the election delay case following the recusal of a judge. The hearing will start at 11:30am.
The bench was dissolved today after Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan Khan recused himself from the five-member bench.
After Judge Amin-Ud-Din withdrew, the Supreme Court was scheduled to continue hearing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-(PTI) Insaf’s appeal against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to postpone the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 11:30am. But the hearing could not be started and the matter was adjourned until tomorrow morning.
On Wednesday, a Supreme Court bench chaired by Justice Qazi Faez Isa directed that matters falling under Article 184(3) of the Constitution be delayed until the Supreme Court Rules 1980, which govern the chief justice’s discretionary power to establish benches, had been amended.
Justice Amin-Ud-Din, along with Justice Isa, agreed on awarding 20 marks to Hafiz-e-Quran students seeking admission to the MBBS/BDS degree under Regulation 9(9) of the MBBS and BDS (Admissions, House Job and Internship) Regulations, 2018. However, Justice Shahid Waheed dissented with the majority order of 2-1 in the suo moto case.
“I recuse myself from the present case in light of the SC order issued by Justice Qazi Faez Isa,” stated the judge, and the initial bench consisted of CJP Bandial, Judge Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Aminuddin, and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail. A new bench will be assembled to hear the case following the recusal of a judge.
After financial and security authorities expressed their inability to support the electoral process, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided to postpone the Punjab elections from April 30 to October 8. As a result, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a petition with the Supreme Court.
