Daily Times

The Supreme Court has formed a new bench to hear the suo-moto notice over coronavirus pandemic on Monday.

The new bench constituted by the Supreme Court to hear the coronavirus suo-motu notice will be headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed while Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood became part of the bench. However, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan and Justice Qazi Ameen are still part of the bench.

Officials further said that due to the unavailability of Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, the apex Court has constituted a new bench to hear the coronavirus suo-motu notice. Justice Umar Ata Bandial is hearing the case in Lahore while Justice Sajjad Ali Shah is hearing the case in Karachi Registry.

A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed will conduct hearing of suo moto notice wherein it had directed the federal government to file a comprehensive report along with the outcome of the high-level meeting which took place last week.

Earlier, the court had issued notices to the chief secretaries of all provinces in addition to summoning the federal interior secretary, chief commissioner Islamabad and the Gilgit-Baltistan chief secretary.

On April 10, CJP Ahmed took his first suo motu notice since assuming the charge as the country’s top judge on the situation arising out of the coronavirus crisis and the steps being taken by the federal government to curb its spread.

The development came after Justice Ahmed expressed displeasure over the federal government’s measures to curb the coronavirus spread