As the controversy over the Supreme Court’s ruling on the election delay issue in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) deepens, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial has gone out to his colleague judges in an attempt to settle the rift within the court.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, doubts have been raised regarding the Chief Justice’s “controversial” position by other judges, the government, and the KP Bar Council, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other lawmakers calling for the CJP to resign.
The task of fixing the fence was started last week by CJP Bandial and continued on Sunday. In an effort to mend the gap among the Supreme Court justices, the top judge is conducting individual talks with each of them, a media report has claimed.
The report said that the Chief Justice organized the benches for the next week in an effort to eliminate any indication of disagreement and foster harmony among the judges.
Judges who wrote dissenting comments in the Punjab election case have been appointed to the CJP’s bench. As a result, as of Monday, Justices Yahya Afridi and Athar Minallah will sit on the Chief Justice’s bench.
The other bench will also include Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Qazi Faiz Isa. Additionally, the panel also includes Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Ayesha Malik.
A bench consisting of Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Hasan Azhar Rizvi has also been formed, and Justice Minallah will sit on it together with Justices Munib Akhtar and Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi.
