Islamabad (October 15, 2018): Deposed Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC), Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has decided to challenge his disqualification from Supreme Judicial Council.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has started consultation with his lawyers, Rasheed A Rizvi and Hamid Khan.
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According to the sources, the verdict will be challenged in supreme court on Monday.
Earlier today, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar remarked that the Supreme Judicial Council is “very active now” and the process of accountability has begun.
“All judges will be held accountable now,” the chief justice said while heading a bench hearing a case pertaining to the to Lahore High Court’s supervisory role over lower courts.
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CJP said that the high courts have badly failed to play their supervisory role and that the concerned committees are also not monitoring their performances.
Every judge demands car, bungalow and other incentives but they are not giving their best for the judiciary, he continued.
“People have been crying and dying but are not getting injustice,” he added.
The top judge added, “Supreme Court’s bench number 1 has wrapped up 7,000 cases but when we ask judges they say only 20 cases have been wrapped up.
Further, Justice Nisar warned, “Those judges, who issue verdicts on very few cases, will also be tried under Article 209.”
Earlier on October 11, President Arif Alvi removed Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui as a judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), a notification issued by the law ministry said on Thursday.
The president took the decision after the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) recommended his removal, the statement added.
A letter written by the SJC had emerged earlier in the day, in which the council, comprising five Supreme Court judges, had said it found Justice Siddiqui guilty of misconduct over a speech he delivered in July earlier this year before the Rawalpindi District Bar Association.
“The council is unanimously of the opinion that in the matter of making his speech before the District Bar Association, Rawalpindi on [July 21] Mr. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui […] had displayed conduct unbecoming of a judge of a high court and was, thus, guilty of misconduct and he is, therefore, liable to be removed from his office under Article 209(6) of the Constitution,” the communication read.
While addressing an audience at the bar, Justice Siddiqui had claimed that personnel of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were manipulating judicial proceedings.
He had further claimed that the spy agency had approached IHC Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi and said: “‘We do not want to let Nawaz Sharif and his daughter come out [of the prison] until elections, do not include Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on the bench [hearing Sharifs’ appeals]’.”
Justice Siddiqui had offered no evidence to support the claims he made.
The IHC judge was facing a reference over his controversial speech, the third reference filed against him.
Earlier on July 31, the SJC had issued a show-cause notice to Justice Siddiqui on the reference for making unnecessary and unwarranted comments at the Rawalpindi District Bar Association by accusing the establishment of manipulating the judicial proceedings.
The SJC took up the matter after considering that such comments prima facie had the tendency of undermining the respect otherwise due to such constitutional institutions.
The council did not consider another request of Justice Siddiqui to hold the proceedings of this reference in the open court.
The judge had been already facing a reference on misconduct earlier moved on the complaint by some retired employees of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for alleged refurbishment of his official residence beyond entitlement.
Likewise, a similar show-cause notice was issued to Justice Siddiqui under Article 209 (5)(6) of the Constitution by the SJC on a reference moved by Advocate Kulsum Khaliq on behalf of former member of the National Assembly Jamshed Ahmed Dasti alleging that the high court judge had, during one of the hearings on a case relating to the 20-day Faizabad sit-in, objected to a compromise between the federal government and the protesting Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah. The compromise was facilitated by the armed forces.
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