Election date case: Ruling partries file plea seeking formation of full court

ISLAMABAD: The ruling parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), and the Pakistan Mulsim League-Nawaz (PML-N), demanded the formation of the Supreme Court’s full court bench on Saturday in order to hear the suo motu notice regarding the alleged delay in the general elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The argument, made by Farooq H. Naek, Kamran Murtaza, and Masoor Usman Awan, also asked that Justices Ijazul Ahsan and Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi be excluded. The development occurs a short time after Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, who also formed a larger bench to hear the case, took a suo motu notice of what appeared to be a delay in the elections for the assemblies, which dissolved in Punjab and KP on January 14 and 18, respectively.