Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa Friday constituted a new full bench to hear petitions challenging the presidential reference filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa. The 10-member larger bench will be headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, with Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Manzoor Malik, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Mansoor Ali shah, Justice Muneeb Akhter, Justice Yahya Afridi, and Justice Qazi Ahmed Amin its members.
The full bench will hear a set of petitions challenging the presidential reference on September 24.
Earlier, Justice Isa had objected to a seven-member bench hearing the reference and had filed a petition requesting the formation of a new full bench along with an expedient hearing to address his petition. During the hearing of the petition, the counsel representing Justice Isa, Muneer A Malik, had contended that the judges on the bench who might possibly benefit from the dismissal of the petition should kindly recuse themselves from the proceedings in addition to three senior judges who were members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). Two judges of the seven-member bench – Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan – subsequently recused themselves from hearing the case. The petitioner judge had objected to the presence of Justice Masood and Justice Ahsan since if he (Justice Isa) was impeached by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), Justice Masood would be elevated to the position of chief justice for six months till March 10, 2024, otherwise he would reach superannuation as judge. Similarly, in this scenario Justice Ahsan would become the chief justice in March 2024 instead of Oct 25, 2024.
