In a bizarre turn of events on Tuesday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) twice had to constitute new benches to hear PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz's petition for the return of her passport to travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah after a judge each from the now dissolved benches recused themselves.

The petition had already seen its original bench dissolved on April 21. It means that in all, three benches that have been assigned the petition have been dissolved till date, and now a fourth division bench will hear it.

Last week, the first bench — comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Anwarul Haq Pannun — had observed that the petition should be heard by the same bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, that had granted bail to the petitioner.

It had subsequently sent the case file to the registrar office with a direction to fix the same before the bench of Justice Najafi and Justice Farooq Haider, who were scheduled to hear it today.

However, when the hearing resumed today, Justice Haider recused himself, leading to the dissolution of the bench.

Subsequently, another bench comprising Justice Najafi and Justice Asjad Javed Ghural was constituted to hear the case but Justice Ghural, too, recused himself.

Thereafter, a bench was constituted for the fourth time, comprising Justice Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem, which will hear the petition tomorrow.

Meanwhile, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said the “general impression of the LHC over cases related to the Sharif family is negative”, adding that the chief justice should keep that in mind.

"Judges are constantly not hearing Maryam's cases," he said.

A bench comprising Justice Najafi and Justice Haider had granted post-arrest bail to Maryam in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case on Nov 4, 2019.

However, the bench had ordered her to surrender her passport as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) feared she could flee the country.