Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to a former spymaster general (retd) Faiz Hameed and three others in the case pertaining to the removal of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui.

Notices were also issued to the former IHC chief justice Anwar Khan Kasi, former Supreme Court registrar Arbab Muhammad Arif and brigadier (retd) Irfan Ramay. A five-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, which included Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Justice Irfan Saadat, issued the notices when the court resumed hearing on Siddiqui`s petition filed against his sacking by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in 2018.

During the hearing, CJP Isa asked Siddiqui’s counsel, Hamid Khan, to rethink the allegations levelled against the respondents that they themselves wanted to come into power after the 2018 elections. Khan replied in the affirmative and confirmed to the bench that the allegations levelled are “correct”.

“Serious allegations have been levelled and their consequences will be severe as well,” said CJP Isa and added that the apex court will not allow itself to be used for anyone “ulterior motives”. He also remarked that it seems the “real desire” is to install someone else in the Prime Minister’s Office and questioned whether the imprisonment of one was aimed at favouring another individual.

The true beneficiary, Justice Isa emphasised, is someone other than the one directly involved. In the act of providing facilities to certain individuals, the actual beneficiary remains different, he maintained.

Neglecting the defense of the Constitution, he pointed out, results in entangling oneself in a complex situation. “The sidelining of a candidate seems strategic, done with the anticipation that a preferred candidate will emerge victorious.” “This has been happening in the country for the past 70 years,” said Khan. Justice JMandokhail questioned, “Should we not rectify what has been happening for 70 years?” He further commented on the attempt to utilise their authority, stating that “an attempt is being made to use our shoulders.” The justice also highlighted the issue of people being treated as pawns and emphasised the need to correct past mistakes.

In response, Justice Isa assured that “when you come to us, we will follow the Constitution.” Acknowledging the difficulty of the path, he added that “it is not an easy path”. The chief justice regretted that some “institutions were not willing to do their job”. The apex court outlined that upon receiving requests for changes, the notices would be issued by the registrar’s office. The hearing was then adjourned to after vacation period.

On October 11, 2018, the SJC unanimously opined that while delivering a speech before the District Bar Association in Rawalpindi on July 21, 2018, Justice Siddiqui had displayed “a conduct unbecoming of a high court judge”. In the speech, the former judge had accused the country’s premier intelligence agency of interfering in the formation of IHC benches that were supposed to hear former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against his conviction in one of the three corruption references that had emanated from the Panama Papers case.