SJC calls in IHC judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui

The complainant accuses the CJP of misusing suo motu powers

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui was served a notice by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) shortly after his remarks against Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, initiating a misconduct proceeding against him on a pending complaint.

According to the notice, complaint numbered SJC 242 of 2015 against Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui was fixed for hearing before the SJC on Saturday, July 7 at 11am in the conference room of the Supreme Court building.



The complaint against IHC judge had been pending since 2015 in which several charges had been framed against him. The federal government had hired service of Maulvi Anwarul Haq Advocate to prosecute him.

On February 21, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar announced that all complaints against superior courts judges in the SJC will be decided by June.

However, several complaints still remain undecided.

On May 10, the SJC suspended proceedings, after the IHC judge urged the apex court to hold an open trial. The top court’s larger bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat, had remanded the matter of holding in-camera trials for judges to the SJC for reconsideration. However, no meeting was held during this period.

In February, the SJC served another show-cause notice on Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui for questioning the role of the ‘constitutional institution’ in the matter relating to the Faizabad sit-in last year.

Later, the judge submitted a reply in this regard but the council had rejected it.

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Siddiqul Farooq has filed a complaint against the CJP in the SJC, citing his alleged encroachment into executive and legislative affairs.

The complainant accused the CJP of misusing suo motu powers, asserting that the top judge had started resorting to populism just like a political leader.

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) also passed a resolution against suo motu actions.

Citing several incidents, the complainant stated that the CJP had misbehaved with a number of elected members of parliament and government functionaries, including the RPO Bahawalpur, Fawad Hassan Fawad and Khawaja Saad Rafiq.

According to Siddiqul Farooq, the CJP had also humiliated former PEMRA chairman Absar Alam and Tauqir Shah, among others.

“In order to obtain information about initiated suo motu cases, the respondent (CJP) received undisclosed individuals privately in his chambers and then he publicly used that information in his comments in court against all norms of judicial propriety”.

The complaint also stated that no independent institution could initiate a probe about the misconduct of a judge, and that according to the prevalent public opinion, accountability was reserved for civilians in Pakistan.



Accusing the CJP of lashing out against politicians and civilians day in and day out, he said that this conduct needed to be scrutinised with the yardstick of being a judge of the country’s highest court.

The complainant contended that if the matter was not immediately taken up, the people of Pakistan would feel further frustrated from SJC itself which they had created for disciplining the judges.

The complainant pleaded the SC to probe the matter and send its opinion to the president for removing the CJP.

Interestingly, a sessions judge from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had also moved a complaint against him. Similarly, a former IHC judge's son had also submitted a complaint. One of the applicants stated that the SJC has yet to allot a number to his complaint against the CJP.