Court expands panel hearing Musharraf candidacy plea

Islamabad: Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has reconstituted a Supreme Court bench hearing petitions against the presidential candidacy of General Pervez Musharraf filed before Saturday's presidential election.

An bench of 11 judges, instead of the previous 10-member panel, will now hear the petitions filed by former judge Wajihuddin Ahmad and Makhdoom Amin Fahim of Pakistan People Party (PPP), who were both candidates in the election.

PPP legislators abstained from voting in the election while Wajihuddin, candidate of the lawyer community, received only a few votes from the electoral college made up of federal and provincial legislators. Both said they had entered the contest only to challenge Gen Musharraf's eligibility to stand for election.

On the reconstituted bench justice M. Javed Buttar has been included in place of justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and justice Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmad is the 11th member added on the panel. The bench will resume the hearing on October 17.

A day before the polling, the Supreme Court allowed the process to go ahead but restrained the Election Commission from officially notifying the result until a decision by the court on whether Gen Musharraf is qualified to run in uniform.

Separately, a seven-judge bench has been set up to hear on October 17 a contempt of court petition from former prime minister Nawaz Sharif over his deportation to Saudi Arabia on September 10 despite a court order that he had every right to return and remain in the country.

The bench will hear the case on daily basis in the afternoons because five of its members are also part of the 11-member bench hearing petitions against Gen Musharraf.