Appeal against SJC recommendation: Ex-IHC judge Siddiqui seeks early hearing

ISLAMABAD: Former judge of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui again requested the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) for early hearing of his petition.

He wrote a 5-page letter to the CJP, Gulzar Ahmed, to underscore the “misery” he is facing due to delay in the hearing of his appeal against the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) recommendation and his removal by the president.

The SJC comprising Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Lahore High Court former chief justice Yawar Ali, and Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh on October 11, 2018, unanimously declared that while delivering the speech before the Rawalpindi District Bar Association on July 21, Siddiqui had displayed a conduct unbecoming of a high court judge.

Siddiqui, in his letter, stated that while waiting for justice and hearing of his case, he crossed the age of superannuation on June 30, 2021. The former judge said the SJC decision also resulted in a financial crisis, which continues as the Supreme Court has yet to decide his case.

He requested that his constitution petition should at least be considered the plea of a common citizen.

“I hope that as the top judge of the country you will consider this request and order an early hearing of my constitutional petition to deliver me from this mental, spiritual and emotional agony,” he said.

The former judge of the IHC in his letter further stated the treatment meted out to him was against the Constitution and law as he was deprived of all the rights and privileges that Articles 4, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, and 25 of the Constitution bestow upon a citizen.

He alleged that former chief justices – Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Asif Saeed Khosa — had personal grudge against him and the SJC’s decision to sack him was unjustified.

The former judge insisted that he had not done anything illegal by delivering the speech.

He said the judiciary had rejected the testimony of its own member without trying to find out the truth.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021