Justice Naqvi’s case brings judicial politics into focus

SC judge unable to gain support of superior bars in his favour so far

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Judicial Council's (SJC) split on the decision to proceed further against apex court’s Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi has again stirred up a debate about the relevancy of judicial politics.

Although the seriousness of the charges is always important to decide the fate of the accused judges, the elements of judicial politics cannot be ruled out in the prevailing situation.

Three kinds of politics – judicial, bar, and national -- are relevant in the matter of Justice Naqvi, who will receive a show-cause notice from the SJC for responding to several charges until November 10.

Justice Naqvi has already expressed his lack of trust in SJC member Justice Sardar Tariq Masood for delaying his opinion on the complaints of misconduct filed against him.

In July this year, he had written a letter to then chief justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, expressing his doubts over the conduct of Justice Masood.

However, lawyers have considered Justice Naqvi to be a member of ex-CJP Bandial's camp in judicial politics. Now it will be interesting to see whether or not ‘like-minded' judges of the former top judge will rescue him as the other camp in the SC stood with incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa against the presidential reference seeking his removal.

In the recent past, whenever the SJC initiated proceedings of misconduct, the respondent judge approached the Supreme Court on several grounds, especially mala fide intentions or other ulterior motives.

Former top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and current CJP Isa used this approach and succeeded in their strategy as the references against them were quashed.

If Justice Naqvi filed a petition in the SC, then the lawyers wonder what will be the grounds for this move -- will he be available to convince the majority of judges against the SJC’s conduct.

Both ex-CJP Iftikhar and incumbent top judge Justice Isa had massive support of the legal community.

However, Justice Naqvi has been unable to gain the support of superior bars in his favour so far. Even the Independent Lawyers Group, which is known as the Asma Group, is campaigning against him.

However, this group is considered to be pro-PML-N.

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and provincial ones are the complainants against Justice Naqvi. The Professional Lawyers Group, which is known as the Hamid Khan Group, is silent on Justice Naqvi’s matter. It is being expected that PTI lawyers would support Justice Naqvi in case he decided to challenge the SJC’s proceedings.

The upcoming Supreme Court Bar Association's (SCBA) elections are important in the context of Justice Naqvi’s case.
It is being witnessed that the element of national politics is also significant in the issue.

The supporters of Justice Naqvi are alleging that the ‘powerful circles’ are behind the complaints of misconduct against him. PTI activists are fully supporting Justice Naqvi, while those belonging to the PML-N are campaigning against him.

It will be interesting as whether the SJC proceedings against Justice Naqvi will bring transparency and accountability within the judiciary or it will weaken the institution, which is already facing several challenges.

It is a fact that internal rifts within the judiciary always give an advantage to the ‘powerful circles’ as was witnessed in Justice Isa’s case.

The lawyers are demanding that instead of growing factionalism, SC judges should stand with merit. There are also apprehensions that soon after the start of the SJC proceedings, complaints of misconduct will be filed against other judges to make the process of their accountability more controversial.