Full bench to hear Justice Isa's plea against presidential reference on Sept 24.

ISLAMABAD -- Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa on Friday ordered the formation of a full 10-member bench for the hearing of Justice Qazi Faez Isa's petition regarding the presidential reference instituted against him.

Headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the 10-member bench will conduct a hearing on Justice Isa's petition on September 24 at 1pm.

The new bench will also include Justice Maqbool Baqir, Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Qazi Ameen Ahmed.

Earlier, Justice Isa had objected to a seven-member bench hearing the reference and had filed a petition requesting the formation of a new, full bench along with an expedient hearing to address his petition.

During the hearing of the petition, the counsel representing Justice Isa, Muneer A. Malik, had contended that the judges on the bench who might possibly benefit from the dismissal of this petition should kindly recuse themselves from the proceedings, in addition to three senior judges who were members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

Two judges of the seven-member bench Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan subsequently recused themselves from hearing the case.

The petitioner judge had objected to the presence of Justice Masood and Justice Ahsan since if he (Justice Isa) was impeached by the...