The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday announced that the recently established constitutional bench will start hearing cases on November 14 and 15.
Earlier, the SC constituted a three-judge committee to fix cases, issue court rosters, form benches, and decide weekly caseload for its recently established constitutional bench.
The committee held a meeting today which was chaired by Justice Aminud Din Khan (head of the constitutional bench) and attended by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, who participated through a telephone call from Karachi.
The SC said in a press release, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss matters for the formation of the constitutional bench.
During the meeting, the committee was briefed by the court’s registrar’s office regarding the pending constitutional cases, the statement said adding, “[The] committee resolved that priority shall be accorded to the oldest cases.”
On Nov 5, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), in its maiden session, had picked Justice Amin as head of the constitutional bench by a seven-to-five majority.
Chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Yahya Afridi, the reconstituted JCP formed a seven-member constitutional bench, including Justices Aminud Din Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Ayesha A. Malik, Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Musarrat Hilali and Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
Today’s press release mentioned that Justice Ayesha Malik will not be available on Nov 14 and 15 and “a bench comprising all available Judges shall be constituted to proceed with cases on these dates.”
The SC Registrar Muhammad Salim Khan released the court roster of a six-member constitutional bench which will begin hearing cases at 9:30am on Nov 14.
The bench will include Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
The SC directed the Registrar to schedule cases for hearing before the bench.
The next meeting of the committee will be held on Nov 13 at 12:30pm after Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar arrives in Islamabad.