Interior minister Rana Sanaullah claimed on Friday that Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had met two ‘senior lawyers’ before deciding to form the bench hearing the military courts case.

Speaking in the National Assembly on Friday, the interior minister said that it was in this meeting that the CJP had decided to include Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the bench who was known to have a defined point of view against military courts in the country. This was done, Sanaullah said, despite the fact that Isa had not sat on a bench with Justice Bandial in over 16 months.

Sanaullah also added that during the hearing of the case on Thursday, one of the lawyers had accidentally let it slip that he had asked the chief justice to make a full-court bench to hear the case.

He also referred to Justice Isa’s remarks on Thursday before he distanced himself from the bench, adding that the nominated chief justice had himself said that he did no accept the court.

He then questioned why the bench had been reconstituted with seven members in a hurry.