Coalition objects to two judges, asks them to recuse themselves from larger SC bench hearing elections case

The coalition government in Pakistan has requested Supreme Court justices Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi to withdraw from a larger Supreme Court bench that is hearing a case regarding the delay in announcing the date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The request was presented in a joint note by the PPP, PML-N, and JUI-F. The hearing, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, began with PML-N’s counsel pointing out that he had not received a copy of the court order. PPP’s lawyer Farooq H. Naek repeated the same and requested the court to issue notices to all concerned parties. Naek then named Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi and Justice Ijazul Ahsan and read out a joint statement of the PPP, the JUI-F, and the PML-N. Justice Mandokhail on Thursday objected to the suo motu notice and termed it “not justified”. The court will decide on Monday whether to form a full-court bench to hear the case.