ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: A proposer of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in the Feb 18 elections has requested the Supreme Court judges hearing the case of Sharif brothers’ candidature to withdraw from the proceedings and instead refer the matter to the chief justice for constituting a new bench comprising pre-Nov 3 emergency judges.

“For doing complete justice, it is humbly prayed that the case be sent to the chief justice for the constitution of an appropriate bench comprising judges not appointed in the aftermath of Nov 3, 2007 constitutional deviation,” Mehr Zafar Iqbal said in an application filed before the Supreme Court here on Tuesday.

A three-member bench comprising Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari, Justice Syed Sakhi Hussain Bukhari and Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali will take up on Wednesday the appeals of the federal government against Lahore High Court’s order of June 23, 2008, disqualifying twice elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif from the by-election because his conviction in the plane conspiracy case had not been set aside.

In the same ruling, the high court had kept pending its decision against the candidature of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif until an election tribunal decides about his nomination.

The Supreme Court, through its June 25, 2008, order stayed by-elections in NA-123 (Lahore) until it disposes of the federation’s petition against the LHC verdict.

In addition to the federal government’s appeals, separate petitions by the Punjab government, Punjab assembly’s speaker, Mehr Zafar Iqbal, Nawaz Sharif’s seconder Shakil Baig, a voter Syed Khurram Ali Shah and Noor Elahi, an independent candidate on whose plea the LHC had disqualified Nawaz Sharif, are also before the court.

At the last hearing the federal government had completed its arguments in a half-hearted manner, and the proposer and the seconder will present their arguments from Tuesday.

In a fresh application, Mr Mehr Iqbal stated that it would be indispensable for the cause of justice and would be in the larger interest of the majesty and glory of this fountain of justice if the members of this bench relieved themselves from this case and direct that the case be laid before a larger bench comprising judges who were part of this court on Nov 2, 2007 and did not take oath in pursuance of the Oath of Office (Judges) Order 2007 and now available as judges.

The petitioner, it said, was among those who had serious reservations against the proclamation of Nov 3 emergency by former president Pervez Musharraf.

Nawaz Sharif also shared the feeling, the petitioner said, adding that this court must be conscious of the fact that effective dispensation and administration of justice required public confidence in the judiciary. In the peculiar facts of the instant matter, there is a real risk and likelihood of the perception of prejudice.

It is a fundamental principle of law expressed in the maxim “nemo judex” in “causa sua” that no man can be a judge in his own cause and any interest likely to cause bias would result in judicial disqualification.

“The hues in which bias can come are as numerous as the type of human frailties,” the application said, adding that the strength of the courts of law lies in the acceptability of their decisions in the public eye.