The Supreme Court’s (SC) five-member bench hearing the case regarding delay in the elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) stood dissolved after Justice Aminuddin Khan recused from it on Thursday. “After Wednesday’s judgement, I recuse myself from hearing the case,” Justice Khan said. as he referred to a judgement, authored by himself and Justice Isa, issued a day earlier which noted that the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) did not have the power to make special benches or decide its members, and said that all hearings based on suo motu notices and cases of constitutional significance – under Article 184(3) – should be postponed until they are legislated upon. The judgement to which Justice Khan referred for his recusal was issued in a suo motu case related to the award of an additional 20 marks to candidates for memorising the Holy Quran by heart to get an MBBS or BDS degree. A three-member special bench, formed by the CJP, heard the case. It was headed by Justice Isa and comprised Justice Khan and Justice Shahid Waheed. Yesterday’s verdict was issued by Justice Khan and Justice Isa, while Justice Waheed disagreed with the judgement and will write a separate dissenting note. The case hearing would resume today at 11:30 am with a new bench. The SC order, read out by the court staff, stated that the decision regarding the members of the bench will be taken on Friday and the case will be decided before a bench that does not include Justice Khan. Barrister Ali Zafar – who is representing the PTI in the case – said that the SC must internally address the current issue arising from divergent views among judges. Speaking to the media outside the apex court, the lawyer suggested that the court either form a full bench or another combination of judges that it deemed appropriate to settle the matter. Zafar emphasised that the issue at hand concerned a fundamental constitutional matter and was not limited to the composition of court benches. The central question is whether the ECP has the right to postpone elections or to determine their timing, he said. He stated that there may be a slight delay, but expressed confidence that a new bench would soon be formed to conduct a hearing on the matter.