ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: The Supreme Court was requested on Wednesday for early hearing of a petition seeking disqualification of the chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education for aggressively pursuing the issue of additional marks given to a daughter of the chief justice.

The petitioner requested the court to fix the case for hearing on Thursday because of its importance.

However, informed sources told Dawn that because of the annual winter vacation of the apex court beginning on Thursday, the case might not be taken up before next week. The only bench available was headed by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, he added.

The apex court may club the two petitions -- one seeking unseating of the chairman of the standing committee and the other filed by former chairman of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Commodore (retd) Shamshad.

The Supreme Court last week had stayed a probe into the matter by the standing committee.

Comdr Shamshad had contended that as chairman of the board he had dealt with and disposed of the application of Farah Hameed Dogar of the intermediate class in accordance with the rules of procedure.

He alleged that the chairman of the standing committee, who was a close relative of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, had started a parallel proceeding by converting the committee into a judicial forum, despite the matter being subjudice before the high court.

The other petition filed under the enforcement of fundamental rights sought a direction for the National Assembly speaker to initiate a disqualification process against the standing committee chairman by referring the matter to the chief election commissioner.