Complaints against judges: Lawyer challenges CJP decree quashing plea

Against orders to restrain guilty individuals from performing duties as judges in case where SJC deemed it appropriate

ISLAMABAD: A lawyer challenged the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) order for dismissing a constitutional petition which sought the disclosure of complaints received against the superior court judges. It also seeks to reveal the disposal ratio of the complaints since the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) was constituted.

On April 30, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Human Rights Committee chief Raheel Kamran Sheikh filed a constitutional petition in the apex court. He was seeking to request the court to pass orders to restrain guilty individuals from performing duties as judges in cases where the SJC deemed it appropriate.

He also pleaded for the swift disposal of the complaints against superior court judges pending with the council.

However, the SC registrar office on May 6 returned the petition after terming it ‘frivolous’. Later, the petitioner through Munir A Malik filed an appeal against the registrar’s objections.

Upholding the registrar office’s objections, the country’s top judge on September 29 ruled that the appeal made by the petitioner in his petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution violates the spirit of articles 209 and 211 of the Constitution read with the Procedure of Enquiry.

The order further said: “It is an important aspect of the proceedings before the SJC that at every stage of its proceedings, within the parameter prescribed under Rule 13 and other enabling provisions, complete confidentiality and secrecy is to be maintained about the actions taken by the council under Article 19-A which itself provides for reasonable restriction will have overriding effect to it.”

Now Raheel Kamran on Saturday moved a review petition, wherein it is stated that Chief Justice of Pakistan being SJC chiarman, the respondent, or any other member of SJC could not hear and decide the plea against the council.

Raheel also relied upon the case of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry versus the President of Pakistan and others. In that case a 13-member bench of the top court had allowed a constitutional petition and quashed the proceedings before the SJC, the judges forming part of the SJC did not hear and decide the case.

The petitioner urged the SC that the order passed by the CJP in chamber be reconsidered and set aside, and his main petition be fixed before the bench.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2016.