SC bench on Punjab polls stands dissolved.

ISLAMABAD -- Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan on Thursday withdrew himself from the five-judge Supreme Court bench hearing a PTI petition against delay in elections to the Punjab Assembly since he was signatory to an order issued by a different bench, proposing the postponement of all cases instituted under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

'In view of the case No 4 of 2022 (awarding of 20 additional marks in MBBS or BDS degrees to candidates for memorising the Holy Quran), which is still in the field but the present bench is proceeding with the case (postponement of Punjab elections), therefore I recuse myself of the case,' observed Justice Amin.

At the outset of proceedings, which commenced half an hour behind schedule, a visibly disturbed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial observed that Justice Amin would like to make a statement.

Soon after Justice Amin's statement, the bench retired for the day. The case will now be taken up on Friday (today) at 11:30am by a bench that Justice Amin would not be part of. The announcement was made by a court assistant after an hours-long wait.

To sum up the day's proceedings, former Additional Attorney General Tariq Mehmood Khokhar, who witnessed the entire episode, had this to offer: 'The Supreme Court was... in a shambles today. The judges came rather late, suggesting last-minute desperate efforts to appear together, which they did albeit with palpable confusion, despair, distrust and discord.'

'A minute or so later, not surprisingly, the bench dissolved due to the recusal of Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan. Several hours later they managed to complete a short sentence to the effect that a new bench will take up the petition on Friday at 11:30am, without the recused judge,' he said.

During the recess, politicians like PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, senior lawyers Muhammad Akram Sheikh, Syed Ali Zafar, Irfan Qadir, Farooq H. Naek, Sajeel Shaharyar Swati and many others kept on guessing about expected eventualities like the fate of the PTI's petition. And whether the three-judge bench order postponing cases under Article 184(3) will be overruled by the new bench was one of the topics of the discussions.

Senator Naek, while talking to Dawn, regretted that in addition to the political and economic instability, the country is now facing a full-blown constitutional crisis.

It appears, he feared, there is a division within the Supreme Court with...