The Supreme Court (SC) set aside on Friday dismissal of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) senior judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui.

A five-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan announced the verdict it had reserved in January this year.

In its verdict today, the SC bench noted that due to the delay in the hearing of the petition Justice Siddiqui had reached the retirement age of a high court judge and therefore cannot be restored on his position.

Consequently, Justice Siddiqui shall be deemed to have retired as a judge of the IHC and he will be entitled to receive all the benefits and privileges due to a retired judge, by allowing these petitions in the above term, the verdict read.

The former judge was removed vide notification issued by President Arif Alvi on October 11, 2019 upon the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for making a speech to the Rawalpindi Bar Association on July 21, 2018.

In his speech, he blamed the higher judiciary for the country’s ‘deplorable’ state of affairs.

In 2019, the IHC ex-judge had challenged the SJC report and the President’s order in the SC.