Gen Faiz may tell a different tale

ISLAMABAD: Former ISI DG Lt-Gen (r) Faiz Hameed may have a different tale to tell about his interaction with former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who has challenged his 2018 dismissal in the Supreme Court.

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued notices to the former spymaster and others on former IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s plea challenging his dismissal by the Supreme Judicial Council.

The News could not talk to Gen Faiz over what his response would be to the court’s notice or regarding what Shaukat Siddiqui has alleged he did in 2018. However, a source who claims to have interacted with Gen Faiz on the issue says that the retired general has a different story to tell.

According to the source, Gen Faiz does not deny meeting the former IHC justice in 2018. It is claimed that, as DG(C), Faiz had met the judge on the instructions of the then ISI DG Lt-Gen (r) Naveed Mukhtar. Per the source, the issue up for discussion was Justice Siddiqui’s order regarding the opening of a road in front of the ISI Headquarters in Aabpara, Islamabad.

The source has also maintained that initially a brigadier was assigned to meet Justice Siddiqui and discuss the sensitivities involved in the court’s direction for the road opening. It was said that Aabpara Road in front of the ISI headquarters had been blocked and diverted due to terror threats. The ISI brigadier was reportedly told to apprise the IHC judge about the sensitivity of the matter and request him to review the direction. The meeting between the two, it is said, did not go well.

Later, the then DG(C) Maj-General Faiz Hameed went to meet the IHC justice along with the brigadier. This meeting, it is said, also had the blessing of the then DG of the ISI. The source asserts that Faiz Hameed, who visited the justice at his official residence, initially regretted what had gone wrong between the justice and the brigadier in their last meeting. Reportedly, the DG(C) had pressed the ISI’s request regarding the road issue but the IHC justice did not agree and offered the DG(C) to approach the apex court against his direction.

Justice Siddiqui was removed as an IHC judge by the Supreme Judicial Council for displaying “conduct unbecoming of a judge” for his speech at the Rawalpindi Bar Association. Justice Siddiqui had accused the ISI of interfering in the judiciary’s affairs and had alleged that some officers of the agency were involved in manipulating the formation of benches in the IHC. He had also blamed the judiciary for allegedly undermining democratic norms in the country. Justice Siddiqi had further alleged that Gen Faiz wanted Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz to remain behind bars till after the 2018 elections.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui was dismissed from his position on October 11, 2018. The judge challenged his dismissal by the SJC in 2018; his case has been ongoing ever since, with the last hearing on the constitutional petition held on June 13, 2022.

In his petition that has now finally been taken up by the apex court, Justice Shaukat Siddiqui had requested that the dismissal notification issued against him as an IHC judge be declared illegal. The judge is being represented by senior lawyer Hamid Khan, while parties in the petition include the Islamabad Bar Association and Karachi Bar Association.