Judge Sardar Raza Khan withdrew from the nine-member bench that was due to hear the appeals against Saturday's presidential election, forcing the country's chief justice to name a new panel of judges.

Khan said that he had already given his opinion on the case when the Supreme Court threw out other opposition appeals against the vote on Friday. Khan was one of the three who dissented from that ruling.

"I don't think I should sit on this bench as I have expressed my opinion on this previous case," Raza told the court. "This case is similar to that case, there is no difference."

The latest appeals have been filed by Musharraf's rivals in the election -- former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmad and Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the vice chairman of former premier Benazir Bhutto's party.

The head judge of the panel, Javed Iqbal, said they would now make "every effort to reconstitute the bench".

It was not clear when Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who fought back against Muharraf's attempt to sack him earlier this year, will form a new panel of judges.

Military ruler Musharraf is seeking a new five-year term of office in the vote, which is by an electoral college of the national and provincial assemblies, in which he has a majority.