ISLAMABAD, June 11: A Supreme Court bench of five judges will take up three petitions on Thursday, all throwing challenge to the MMA leadership and their educational qualification, their statement about Pakistan’s apex court, and the NWFP government’s actions.

Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad has constituted a special bench of five judges to hear the petitions filed by Dr Aslam Khaki, who is dubbed by the MMA a “surrogate petitioner.”

Dr Aslam Khaki had first filed the constitutional petition challenging the educational qualification of sixty-five legislators, majority of them from the MMA.

The case is now at a ripe stage. The Attorney General is required to submit a report detailing the government’s version on the points raised in the plea.

The second petition in which he challenged the right of the provincial assembly to enact the Shariat Bill, will be taken up for the first time after its filing on June 4.

In the third petition, he asked the court to issue contempt of court notice to Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, the MMA chief, for his alleged derogatory remarks about the SC judges.

The petitioner claims to be the head of Insaf Welfare Trust, which is working for the promotion of justice and public interest litigation to eradicate injustice from society.

His petition challenging the educational qualification of MMA leaders was taken up by the court urgently, but was adjourned on two occasions, once on the request of the attorney general. The second adjournment was made on the request of the petitioner as he wanted to amend his petition to add more names to the list of respondents.

The SC bench will consist of Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq, Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal, and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi.

If the petition succeeds, the entire MMA leadership from its JUI and JUP components would be wiped out, and the MMA command would go to the Jamaat-i-Islami. The government would lose only a few MNAs. The degrees of Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Sattar Laleka, Amjad Warriach of the PML (Junejo), an MNA from Bhakhar, are, in the petitioner’s view, of suspicious nature.