ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed reservations over the Federal Constitutional Court’s (FCC) directive that cases pertaining to PTI founder Imran Khan’s hospital transfer be fixed before the latter, but deferred its own proceedings on the matter for three weeks, observing that propriety demanded deferment.

The FCC had issued the orders on Tuesday, directing the court’s office to requisition from the SC the relevant cases and fix them before it under Article 175-E of the Constitution. The directive was issued on a plea by three Adiala jail inmates seeking relief similar that provided to Imran by the SC in an Aug 18 order.

A three-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Shahid Waheed and including Justices Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Ishtiaq Ibrahim, took up the pleas on Wednesday.

The judges told Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan that what bothered them was the fixation of the cases before the FCC, as stated in paragraph six of the Sept 15 FCC order.

Justice Waheed also observed that fixing cases before the FCC requisitioned from the SC did not seem to fall under clause 5 of Article 175-E of the Constitution.

Article 175-E, which was inserted in the Constitution through the 27th Constitutional Amendment, empowers the FCC to call for the record of any case and authorises it to decide matters involving major questions of constitutional law.

More to follow.