SJC dismisses 10 complaints against judges

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Friday held that no substantial evidence has been adduced by the complainants who had filed complaints against judges.

An SJC meeting was held in the Supreme Court under Justice Yahya Afridi, Chief Justice of Pakistan/ Chairman Supreme Judicial Council. It was attended by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Hashim Kakar.

The meeting examined 10 complaints against the judges under Article 209 of the Constitution filed by different people and held that no substantial evidence had been adduced by the complainants, therefore the council had filed the complaints.

The SJC also discussed the agenda items regarding amendments in the code of conduct of judges under Article 209(8) of the Constitution and letter of six IHC judges.

“The Council considered different options and modalities in this regard and decided to widen the consultation on the subject as the code applies to the heads of different institutions in addition to judges and decided to take up the matter in the next meeting once again,” said a press release issued here by the Public Relations Department of the apex court.

The press release further stated that the SJC took up for consideration various agenda items including the issue of rule-making of the council and establishment of its secretariat.

It was further stated that the SJC agreed to the proposal of Registrar and decided that rule-making process of the council should be undertaken and draft should be placed before the council in the next meeting.

In this respect, the Council authorised the chairman to hire the services of a competent individual with proven ability to work as SJC secretary for a period of three months who would be tasked to assist the council in conducting its meetings, oversee rule-making exercise, and firm up infrastructure and human resource requirements of the council’s secretariat.

Similarly, the council decided to hold regular meetings on monthly basis in future to clear the backlog on fast track.

“In case of frivolous complaints, action will be taken against the complainants in accordance with law,” the press release stated. It is pertinent to mention here that various complaints of misconduct had been filed in the SJC including against former chief justice Qazi Faez Isa, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and four other members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

In July this year, two complaints of misconduct were filed against the CEC by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, including Omar Ayub Khan and Azam Swati, while a Karachi-based lawyer Ali Tahir had also filed complaints of misconduct against the CEC as well as former CJP Isa.

Earlier, in June Orya Maqbool Jan had also filed complaint of misconduct in the SCJ against Justice (retd) Isa for conveying his objections to the British High Commissioner to Pakistan against her remarks made on Pakistan’s internal matters in a speech delivered at public forum.

He had prayed the Council to undertake an inquiry into the matter under Article 209 of the Constitution read with Supreme Judicial Council Procedure of Enquiry Act 2005.

Meanwhile, second meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) constituted under the 26th Constitutional Amendment was held in the Supreme Court.

The meeting was chaired by Justice Yahya Afridi, Chief Justice of Pakistan/ JCP Chairman to consider a single point agenda of formation of a Constitutional Bench within the Sindh High Court. It was attended by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail (via video link);, SHC Chief Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui, Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, Attorney-General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, senators Farooq H Naek and Shibli Faraz; MNAs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad, Umar Ayub Khan; Roshan Khursheed Bharucha, Sindh Law Minister Zia ul Hassan Lanjar and Sindh Bar member Qurban Ali Malano.

Following an extensive and thoughtful exchange of views, the JCP unanimously endorsed the proposal put forth by the SHC CJ that all the existing judges of the high court are nominated to be the judges of Constitutional Benches for expeditious disposal of the existing huge backlog of cases.

“This arrangement will remain effective until 24th November 2024. The matter will again be taken by Judicial Commission on 25th November 2024,” a press release issued by PRO Supreme Court stated.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that during the course of meeting PTI-nominated member for the Commission Shibli Faraz on one occasion said that “we are terrorists”. At this, sources said that Chief Justice Yahya Afridi asked the member to refrain from uttering such things.

Later on, after the meeting, the federal law minister, while talking to newspersons outside the Supreme Court, said that Justice Mandokhail attended the meeting through video link for some time while Akhtar Hussain, representative of Pakistan Bar Council, could not turned up to the meeting due to ailment of his spouse.

When a journalist asked him it was learnt that during the meeting something about terrorism was also mentioned at which the law minister replied that something was uttered in a lighter tone and nothing else.

Similarly, when the same question was repeated to PMLN representative Sheikh Aftab, he replied that Shibli Faraz was a good citizen of the country and he did not make any complaint to the Commission but discussion was held during the meeting in cordial atmosphere and nobody replied to Shibili.