ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: The Supreme Court constituted on Tuesday a nine-judge bench to take up on Dec 1 a set of petitions against the memogate scandal.

The petitions have been filed by PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and leaders of his party Ishaq Dar and Khwaja Asif, Barrister Zafarullah of the Watan Party and Advocate M. Tariq Asad. Notices have already been issued to the counsel for the petitioners and Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq.

The larger bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and comprising Justices Mian Shakirullah Jan, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Jawwad S. Khwaja, Tariq Parvez, Mian Saqib Nisar, Amir Hani Muslim, Ejaz Afzal Khan and Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry will hear the petitions accusing former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani of having sent a conspiratorial letter to former US military chief Mike Mullen through Mansoor Ijaz, a US businessman of Pakistan origin, against the army and ISI.

“That the petition so filed before this court may kindly be fixed at a very early date in the interest of justice, national integrity, sovereignty and the existence of our state,” Mr Sharif said in his plea. He said acts of those conniving and conspiring to destroy Pakistan should be thwarted and put to rest without further irreparable loss and injury.

This is the second such application filed by Nawaz Sharif after submitting the main petition. On Thursday, he had filed an application requesting an order to stop Husain Haqqani from leaving Pakistan.

“It is apprehended that either former ambassador Haqqani will flee the country or that he will be made to leave the country in order to frustrate the adjudication by this court for reasons based on malice, to say the least,” the two-page application said.

In his first petition, Mr Sharif asked the court to unearth what he called the “dreadful conspiracy” to demonise the armed forces of Pakistan. He had made President Asif Ali Zardari, Husain Haqqani, Mansoor Ijaz, Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, ISI chief Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and secretaries for foreign and interior affairs as respondents.

“The culprits exhibiting grave disloyalty to the state and the people of Pakistan and who are found guilty of the crimes should be brought to book,” he said.