Naqvi, 7th SC judge to resign prematurely

A number of SC and high court judges have tendered resignations due to SJC proceedings

ISLAMABAD:

Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi is not the first superior court judge to resign from his position in view of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) proceedings. So far, seven judges of the apex court, including Justice Naqvi, have resigned before completion of their terms for a variety of reasons. The number of such high court judges is ten.

In October 2016, Iqbal Hameedur Rahman, a judge of the Supreme Court, resigned from his position after an SC bench invalidated the 74 appointments made to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) while Justice Rahman served at the capital's high court as the chief justice.

In 2001, Justice Rashid Aziz resigned over allegations of bias in a corruption case against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. In the same year, Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum of the Lahore High Court (LHC) also left his post due to allegations of bias in the Benazir Bhutto corruption case.

Two Supreme Court judges—Fakir Muhammad Khokhar and Javed Buttar—tendered their resignations on August 6, 2009. These judges had taken an oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) promulgated by General Pervez Musharraf on November 3, 2007.

Read Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi resigns as Supreme Court judge

Justice Khokhar and Justice Buttar resigned after a 14-member SC bench declared the imposition of the November 3, 2007 emergency and subsequent actions as unconstitutional and void on July 31, 2009. The bench held that judges who took an oath under the PCO would be tried in the SJC for committing judicial misconduct.

Two days earlier, on August 4, 2009, BHC Chief Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai and four other judges—Justice Ahmed Khan Lashari, Justice Akhtar Zaman Malghani, Justice Nadir Khan Durrani, and Justice Mehta Kalash Nath Kohli—also resigned following the SC order. These BHC judges had also taken oaths of office under the PCO.

In April 2019, Justice Farrukh Irfan of the LHC resigned after a reference was filed against him in the SJC due to his name emerging in the Panama Papers leak. In February 2017, Justice Mazhar Iqbal Siddiqui of the LHC resigned due to proceedings initiated in the SCJ based on corruption allegations.

In May 2015, Justice Muhammad Tasnim of the Sindh High Court resigned for personal reasons. During General Yahya Khan's era, Justice Fazal Ghani of the LHC faced a reference in the SJC, and upon the arrival of the reference against him, he resigned from his position. In contrast, former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar released pensions amounting to millions to the judges who had taken an oath under the PCO.