LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered formation of a larger bench to hear a petition filed in 1991 that sought disqualification of the then premier Nawaz Sharif on grounds that he does not comply with Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

The case had been pending for decades after which the court has ordered that a larger bench be formed to hear the high-profile case, since according to law, cases involving high-profile individuals such as the prime minister require at least five or seven judges on the bench.

The unavailability of the required number of judges is why the petition has been pending for so long.

According to DawnNews, there were a few occasions over the years when a larger bench was made, but then some judges opted out from hearing the case.

After the initial hearing of the case today, a two-member LHC bench requested the chief justice for a larger bench to hear the case that was filed by Ali Imran in 1991.

Petitions seeking PM’s disqualification

A few months ago, the Supreme Court had dismissed petitions seeking the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Three identical petitions had been filed by PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Advocate Gauhar Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Ishaq Khakwani, arguing that Nawaz Sharif had lied on the floor of the National Assembly on the issue of arbitration by the army during the political crisis in August last year, when the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) had staged sit-ins in Islamabad .

Nawaz had told the parliament that it was PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri and PTI Chairman Imran Khan who had requested a meeting with army chief General Raheel Sharif in order to broker a settlement with the government over the political stalemate.

The premier had said he gave permission to the army chief to engage the two leaders and play the role of a mediator.

But Imran Khan and Qadri had categorically rejected the premier's statement that they had invoked the army's help, and slammed the premier for "lying to the nation".

The military had later issued a short statement saying that it was playing the role of facilitator during the political crisis at the behest of the government.