ISLAMABAD, Dec 4: The Supreme Court hearing petitions for review of the verdict given in 2000 in the case of attack on the apex court and hooliganism said on Tuesday that a five-judge larger bench would be constituted to proceed with the case.

The petitioners -- former PML (N) MNA Tariq Aziz, Mian Mohammad Munir, MPAs Chaudhry Tanvir Ahmed Khan, Akhtar Rasool, Akhtar Mahmood and Sardar Mohammad Naseem Khan and former president of the Nawaz Sharif Force, Shahbaz Goshi, -- sought review of the 2000 order convicting them of contempt of the court and awarding one-month simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs5,000 each in the Nov 28, 1997, Supreme Court rowdyism case.

Even switching of loyalty to the PML (Q) by two of them could not save them as the nomination papers of Akhtar Rasool and Mian Mohammad Munir for NA-122 (Lahore) were rejected on Monday by a returning officer. They had also been barred from contesting in the 2002 general elections on the same ground.

In 2000, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising then Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan, Justice Mohammad Bashir Jehangiri, Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmed, Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Arif and Justice Munir A. Sheikh had found all seven accused guilty of contempt of the court.

In its verdict the apex court had said that they were part of the crowd that had gathered in and around the court building in the morning of November 28, 1997, and they were involved in acts of rowdyism, including raising slogans and displaying banners against the judiciary with the intention of bringing the judges to disrespect and disturbing the order of decorum of the court.

They were convicted under Article 204 of the Constitution read with Section 3 and 4 of the Contempt of Court Act 1976.

Later, all of them were exonerated by the apex court. They were again convicted by the court after a citizen, Shahid Orakzai, had filed a petition resurrecting the entire case.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Ijaz-ul-Hassan and Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Legari adjourned the case and observed that a five-judge larger bench would be constituted to hear the matter.

Advocate Wasim Sajjad, legal counsel for Akhtar Rasool, told Dawn that the petitioners had pleaded before the court to set aside the conviction. He said that Akhtar Rasool and Mohammad Munir would also appeal before the Election Tribunal against the rejection of their nomination papers.