Three member bench constituted to hear Qadri's ECP petition

Chief Justice to head the bench himself with the petition set to be heard on February 11.

ISLAMABAD: A day after the Supreme Court admitted for hearing a petition by Minhajul Quran International (MQI) chief Tahirul Qadri to reconstitute the election commission, it formed a three-judge bench in the case.

A three-member bench would be led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry himself and will start hearing the petition from February 11. Justice Gulzar Ahmad and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed are the other members of the bench.

Earlier this week, Qadri had filed a petition for dissolution of the Election Commission stating that the appointments of Chief Election Commissioner and other members of the Election Commission, was done in contravention to Article 213 of the Constitution where proposed candidates’ hearing was not held.

The MQI chief had appealed to the court in his petition that all previous appointments of the ECP be cancelled and orders issued for new hiring, according to the Constitution. Qadri had said that he will himself argue the case before the bench.

The court has already put on notice the ECP and the attorney general of Pakistan Irfan Qadir to appear in the case. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and PML-Q are also supporting Qadri’s stance on ECP’s composition.