Siddiqui makes impassioned appeal to CJ

Deposed IHC judge seeks an early hearing of his appeal against SJC’s Oct 2018 order

ISLAMABAD:

Deposed Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has made another impassioned appeal to the chief justice of Pakistan to conduct an early hearing of his petition against the Supreme Judicial Council’s (SJC) October 2018 recommendation to remove him from service.

Siddiqui, who was deposed for leveling allegations against a spy agency of manipulating benches at a bar’s function, wrote a 5-page letter to Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed to highlight the “agony” that he has to go through due to constant delay in hearing of his appeal against the SJC’s decision.

The former judge wrote that the treatment meted out to him was against the Constitution and law as he was deprived of all the rights and privileges that Article 4,9,12, 13, 14, 18, 19 and 25 of the Constitution bestow upon a citizen.

He alleged that Justice Gulzar’s predecessors – former chief justices Mian Saqib Nisar and Asif Saeed Khosa – held a personal grudge against him and the SJC’s decision to sack him was an unjustified one.

The former judge claimed that he had not done anything illegal by delivering the speech. He said the judiciary had rejected the testimony of its own member without trying to find out the truth.

“If the country’s biggest court rejects the testimony of a judge and declares it inauthentic…

“If it rather declares him a criminal and makes an example of him but doesn’t have the courage to hold the main character of the story accountable then you can imagine what the 20 crore people of the country will think about justice,” Siddiqui wrote.

He said while waiting for justice and hearing of his case, he crossed the age of superannuation on June 30, 2021. The former judge said the SJC decision also resulted in a financial crisis which continues the Supreme Court has yet to decide his case.

He requested that his constitution petition should at least be considered the plea of a common citizen.

“I hope that as the top judge of the country you will consider this request and order an early hearing of my constitutional petition to deliver me from this mental, spiritual and emotional agony,” he said.

The SJC on October 11, 2018 unanimously declared that while delivering the speech before Rawalpindi District Bar Association on July 21, Siddiqui had displayed a conduct unbecoming of a high court judge.

The SJC – the forum that can hold a superior court judge accountable – then comprised Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Lahore High Court former Chief Justice Yawar Ali and Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh.