ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) said Tuesday that the Supreme Court will announce the verdict in the Punjab chief minister’s election case at 7:30pm.

The proceedings went on for three days — Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday — as lawyers from all the parties presented their arguments.

Pervez Elahi, who had been defeated by Hamza Shahbaz on July 22 after 10 PML-Q votes were rejected by Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly Dost Mazari, had challenged the deputy speaker’s ruling in the SC.

The SC formed a three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and including Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan — to hear the case, but the coalition government objected to it and demanded a full court take up the matter as they did not want “bench-fixing”.

However, after hearing arguments from all sides for nearly eight hours on Monday, the SC decided not to form a full court bench, saying that the same bench would hear the case.

As the SC decided not to form a full bench, the ruling coalition and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) decided to boycott the apex court’s hearing.