In political matters, do Supreme Court benches change or stay the same?

In a thunderous press conference on Monday, the vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, accused the top court of “bench-fixing”, implying that the same judges sit on the bench when the Supreme Court of Pakistan is hearing cases of political importance.

Other leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, seated with Maryam, went as far as to demand that the court dispel this impression by hearing the present case, regarding the election of the chief minister of Punjab, by constituting a full-court bench. The demand has been rejected by a three-member bench of the apex court.

But is the allegation correct? Does the panel of judges, which rules on political matters, follow a pattern?

Geo.tv has compiled a list of some major court cases, which involved political parties, from 2017 to date, in no particular order:

PTI petition against election for the Chief Minister Punjab

Bench: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail

Verdict: Run-off election on July 22, ignoring the LHC judgement

PTI petition against July 22 CM Punjab election

Bench: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar

Verdict: Decision awaited

PTI government dissolved national assembly

Bench: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail

Verdict: Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling unconstitutional, National Assembly restored

PTI petition for interpretation of Article 63-A

Bench: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail

Verdict: A divided court (3-2) ruled that votes of defected lawmakers not be counted

PTI petition against NAB amendments

Bench: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah

Verdict: Decision awaited

Panama case

Bench: Justices Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Azmat Saeed

Verdict: Decided to form a Joint Investigation Team to probe corruption allegation against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

Panama case implementation bench

Bench: Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Azmat Saeed, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan

Verdict: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif removed from office

Lifetime disqualification of Nawaz Sharif and Jahangir Tareen

Bench: Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Azmat Saeed, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah

Verdict: Lifetime ban on Nawaz Sharif, Jahangir Tareen

Hanif Abbasi vs Imran Khan

Bench: Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Faisal Arab

Verdict: Money trail provided by Imran Khan sufficient, while Jahangir Tareen declared “dishonest”

2018 petition for Imran Khan’s disqualification

Bench: Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan

Verdict: Dismissed

PTI’s Qasim Suri’s reelection

Bench: Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan

Verdict: Suri reinstated as deputy speaker of National Assembly despite ECP order

PTI long march May 25

Bench: Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi

Verdict: PTI provided ground to protest

Nawaz Sharif bail

Bench: Justice Asif Khosa, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi

Verdict: Nawaz Sharif granted bail on medical reasons