The Supreme Court on Wednesday formed a nine-member bench, led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to hear the controversial memo case. The next hearing on the case would take place on October 22. The court also issued notices to all parties in the case including PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and Attorney General Irfan Qadir. A nine-judge bench, headed by Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, had earlier been hearing the case on the controversy after the Memo Commission held that Hussain Haqqani was the architect of the memo sent to former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen seeking US intervention in a possible overthrow of the government by the military. During July 12 hearing of the memo case, the Supreme Court had given the counsel three days’ time to file Haqqani’s request for exemption, which was filed on July 17.
