SJC to take up complaints against senior judges tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: After a gap of over three years, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Thursday convened a Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) meeting to examine complaints against superior court judges including Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi. 

This will be the first meeting of the SJC under CJP Isa that will take place on Friday (tomorrow) at 11.30am.

Headed by CJP Isa, SJC also consists of two senior judges of the apex court — Justice Tariq Masood and Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan.

SJC is the only constitutional forum that has powers to remove judges of superior courts on different charges.

Besides Justice Naqvi, complaints were filed against other judges of the superior court.

The top judicial forum will likely take up a complaint against Justice Naqvi in tomorrow’s meeting.

Justice Masood, senior judge of the Supreme Court and member of SJC, had submitted his legal opinion on the misconduct complaints filed against apex court Justice Naqvi in September this year, according to The News.

Several misconduct complaints were filed against Justice Naqvi during the tenure of former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial. Justice (retd) Bandial had referred the matter to Justice Tariq Masood for examining it and giving his legal opinion.

Initially, the misconduct complaint was filed against Justice Naqvi was filed with the SJC by a Lahore-based lawyer Muhammad Dawood. Later on, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) had also announced filing complaint against the senior judge.

PBC Vice Chairman Haroon Rashid filed a misconduct complaint against the SC judge after an audio leak emerged purportedly featuring a conversation about the fixation of the case before a particular bench or judge with former Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi.

The SJC, a forum of accountability of judges of the superior courts and top government officials, is comprised of five members, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan, two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court and two most senior chief justices of high courts.

Earlier in April, senior judges of the Supreme Court Justice Isa and Justice Masood urged then CJP Bandial to convene the meeting of the SJC for the consideration of misconduct complaints filed against Justice Naqvi.

In a joint letter addressed to all the members of the SJC, both the judges had said that they were “waiting for you to convene a meeting of the Council to consider the complaints and to ascertain whether there is a substance in the stated allegations; we must exonerate the respondent judge and fully restore his honour or else submit our report in terms of the Constitution”.

Both the senior judges said that written complaints were received, including from the Pakistan Bar Council alleging misconduct and financial impropriety by Justice Naqvi.

They said that Article 209 of the Constitution establishes the SJC and the Council must inquire into the capacity and misconduct of a Judge. “To leave the respondent judge under a cloud of uncertainty undermines both his and the judiciary’s repute. Confidence of the people in the integrity and independence of the judiciary requires us to proceed without any further delay,” Justice Isa and Justice Masood wrote.