ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council, under the chairmanship of Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali, will hear the pending references against seven judges from May 10 to May 12.
The judges against whom references are pending in the SJC are: Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Anwar Kasi, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, Justice Syed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu, Justice Shahid Hameed Dar and Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan. The council will also hear a reference against a judge of the Peshawar High Court.
The Supreme Judicial Council, apart from chief justice of Pakistan, will comprise three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court and two senior-most judges of the high courts. Though the chief justice of Islamabad High Court is the senior-most judge, he will not be the part of the council since a reference against him is also pending with the SJC. His place will be filled by another senior-most judge from some other province.
According to sources, two judges of Lahore High Court, Justice Syed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu, stopped official work soon after references were filed against them. They reportedly conveyed the senior lawyers that they won’t resume work until their names were not cleared by the Supreme Judicial Council. The hearing of references against these judges will take place on May 11.
Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan, whose name has surfaced in the Panama scandal, however continues to perform his official work. The council will hear a reference against him as well.
Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court Anwar Kasi is accused of drawing an amount of Rs 65,000 as house rent along with his salary every month even though a sum of Rs 110,000 was separately being paid as rent of his house every month from the court’s funds. In reference against him, which was filed by Advocate Rana Abid Nazir Khan, he has also been accused of appointing his brother Muhammad Idrees Khan Kasi as deputy registrar in the IHC in violation of merit. He is also accused of illegally giving jobs to two of his friends in BPS-17 and BPS-18.
In a reference filed by former CDA director Anwar Gopang, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui is accused of pressurising the CDA to construct a special cage for his pigeons on the rooftop of his official residence. He is also accused of shifting his residence thrice in search for a ‘better’ abode and compelling the CDA to renovate his existing residence despite the fact that the house was the property of the PWD.
The honourable judge is accused of ordering the CDA to illegally allot a plot to CDA Director Manzoor Hussain Shah. He is also accused of illegally appointing CDA Assistant Director Shahid Singha’s daughter-in-law as research associate in the Islamabad High Court on a monthly salary of Rs 80,000.
The hearing of references against these two judges will take place on May 12.
It needs to be mentioned here that the Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association have demanded that any reference against a judge should be heard on priority basis.