Appeal against SC verdict on judges retirement next week

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is going to file an intra-court appeal (ICA) in the Supreme Court next week against its judgment, delivered in 2023 in Afiya Shehrbano Zia case, holding that judges, who retire or resign, do not fall in the ambit of Article 209 of the Constitution, that determines misconduct of judges of the superior courts.

The need for challenging the judgment of Afiya Shehrbano propped up last week after the resignation, tendered by Sayyed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, judge of the Supreme Court, when the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) proceedings against him were under way over misconduct complaints, filed by various lawyers as well as Pakistan Bar Council.

The federal government would file the ICA probably on Monday, Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan told The News on Thursday.

Last week, on January 12, Chief justice Qazi Faez Isa, being the SJC chairman, conducted proceedings on the misconduct complaints, filed against Justice Mazahir Naqvi, who had submitted his resignation to the President of Pakistan the other day.

The AG had submitted before the SJC that the division bench, which had taken the petition of Afiya Shehrbano Zia, consisting of now-retired Justice Ijazul Ahsan, along with Justice Munib Akhtar, had decided the matter in limine without issuing a notice to the AGP office under Rule 27A of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) or the respondents.

The AGP submitted that besides, the decision had come on June 27, 2023, the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 was enacted, stipulating that petitions filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution could only be heard by a bench not less than three judges.

“Although the operation of the Act was stayed, the bench could have waited for the outcome of the appeals against the Act,” the AG had argued.

The assistant for Khawaja Haris, counsel for Justice Naqvi, however, informed the SJC that as Justice Naqvi has tendered his resignation, the Council could not proceed against him.

The Council, after statement of AGP that the federal government was going to file the ICA against the apex court judgment, had adjourned the proceedings until February 15 at 11:30 am.

The CJ, being the chairman of the Council, had observed that they would now examine the facts given in the complaints, filed against the judge and directed witnesses to appear also on the next proceedings of the Council.