Larger bench formed to hear pleas against judicial panel on audio leaks

ISLAMABAD: A larger bench of the Supreme Court will take up on Friday (today) the constitutional petitions challenging a notification of the federal government constituting a judicial commission on audio leaks.

A five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Umer Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsen, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed, will take up the constitutional petitions at 11am.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, Abid S Zubairi, Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir, president and secretary Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), and Advocate Riaz Hanif Rai had challenged the federal government’s notification constituting the judicial commission on audio leaks.

The petitioners had requested the apex court to declare the impugned notification of May 19 regarding the constitution of an inquiry commission to probe the veracity of alleged audio leaks as ultra vires to the Constitution.

They had also prayed the apex court to suspend the proceedings of the inquiry commission on audio leaks or any order passed by it.

The federal government, through a notification, had constituted a judicial commission, headed by Supreme Court judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and comprising Chief Justice Balochistan High Court Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Chief Justice Islamabad High Court Justice Aamir Farooq, to probe the veracity of the recent audio leaks.