ISLAMABAD: As the Supreme Court resumes hearing on Thursday disqualification cases against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly misleading parliament, one of the petitioners has expressed reservations against the presiding judge and pleaded that the judge should recuse himself from the bench.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja will commence hearing a set of three identical petitions moved by PTI leader Ishaq Khakwani, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, and Advocate Gohar Nawaz Sindhu.

All three petitioners have asked the court to order the disqualification of the prime minister for his alleged misstatement on the floor of the house during the recently-concluded joint session of parliament.

On August 29, the petitions maintain, the PM claimed that the government had not asked the armed forces to ‘mediate’ and become a ‘guarantor’ between the government and the protesting parties.

Mr Sindhu and Chaudhry Shujaat have filed separate applications requesting Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk to consider constituting a seven-judge larger bench to hear the cases. Ishaq Khakwani – through his counsel Irfan Qadir – has filed a different plea, expressing reservations on behalf of the PTI against the presiding judge. But Mr Sindhu’s request for a larger bench has already been turned down by the chief justice.

Former attorney general Irfan Qadir told Dawn that the PTI maintained in its application, that it had always had concerns regarding the judge in question, but the apprehensions were lent credence at the last hearing of the case on Sept 29. On that day, the judge and the PTI counsel had a brief but uncordial exchange regarding the petitioner’s presence in court when their case was first called.

The application alleges that members of the bar have expressed serious reservations over some of the judge’s decisions. The petition states that while the applicant is aware that he cannot choose his own judge. But he has every right to object to a particular judge when there are serious apprehensions of an unfair trial.

The petitioner has also offered to furnish reasons and supporting documents to substantiate their fears, if the bench wishes to examine them.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014