SJC holds open hearing in Justice Mazahar case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Thursday granted permission to Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, judge of the Supreme Court, to submit his reply by January 1, 2024, against the show cause notice issued to him over charges of misconduct.

Headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the SJC, on the request of Justice Naqvi, held open proceedings of the council in courtroom No 1 of the Supreme Court. A Lahore based lawyer and Pakistan Bar Council had filed complaints of misconduct against Justice Naqvi with the SJC.

Other members of the council are Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsen, Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

Earlier in the day, besides requesting to hold open hearing of the SJC proceedings, Justice Naqvi had also sought an adjournment of the proceedings till the final decisions of his pending petitions with the Supreme Court, filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, will take up Justice Naqvi’s two petitions today (Friday).

On Thursday, Justice Naqvi, along with his counsel Khwaja Haris, appeared before the SJC. His counsel Khawaja Haris requested the council to grant time for submission of reply on behalf of his client to the show cause notice.

Meanwhile, the SJC, after hearing the counsel, adjourned the proceedings until January 11 but directed Khawaja Haris to submit reply as well as list of witnesses by January 1, 2024.

Similarly, the council also directed Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan to submit the list of witnesses within three days.

On November 20, Justice Naqvi had challenged in the Supreme Court, complaints of misconduct filed against him in the SJC, terming them a direct and blatant attack on the independence of judiciary.

The meeting of the SJC was scheduled on November 20 to examine the complaints of misconduct filed against Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, senior most judge of the Supreme Court, as well as Justice Naqvi.

Justice Naqvi, however, filed a petition in the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution through senior lawyers Khawaja Haris, Barrister Latif Khosa, Barrister Ali Zafar and Makhdom Ali Khan, making the Federation of Pakistan through the Ministry of Law and Justice secretary, President of Pakistan and SJC through its secretary as respondents.

The judge had prayed the apex court to declare the initiation of SJC proceedings as coram non judice, without lawful authority and of no legal effect and quash the same.

The judge had further prayed the apex court to declare that the purported show cause notice dated October 28, 2023 and the hearing notice dated November 13, 2023 are without lawful authority and of no legal effect and quash the same.

The judge had alleged that he has been facing a malicious campaign since February 16, 2023, adding that false and baseless allegations have been openly and publicly leveled against him.

“A media trial has been conducted while the malicious campaign and complaints are a direct and blatant attack on the independence of judiciary,” Justice Naqvi had maintained, adding that these are violative of and inconsistent with the rights to access to justice guaranteed under Article 4, 9 and 10-A of the Constitution, saying that he reserved the right to urge further grounds and submit additional material in support at the time of hearing.