ISLAMABAD, March 14: A five-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad, will take up on Monday all the constitutional petitions challenging the elevation of three judges of the Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court.

The bench consists of Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq, Justice Mian Ajmal, Justice Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), which filed a constitutional petition, challenging the appointments of the judges to the apex court, demanded that Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad should not head the bench due to his close relationship with the former chief justice, who got the respondent judges elevated.

The SCBA also demanded that minus the chief justice and the judges whose elevation had been impugned, rest of the SC judges be included in the bench to hear the petitions.

Constitutional petitions of the Pakistan Bar Council, the SCBA, and Advocate Nawaz Kharal will be placed before the bench on Monday (March 18).

The petitions have questioned the appointments of Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Faqeer Khokhar on the ground that their appointments were contrary to the principle of seniority laid down in the judges’ case.

They prayed to the court to revert Justice Fakeer Khokhar, who is on the 13th number on the seniority list, to the LHC. The petitioners raised the question if an outgoing chief justice could recommend appointments against the vacancies, which would accrue after his retirement.

Advocate Nawaz Kharal raised the issue whether a constitutional provision under which a lawyer with 15 years’ experience could be appointed a judge of the Supreme Court directly had been made redundant, as no such appointment had been made yet.