Justice Shah is 'not afraid of any reference'

ISLAMABAD:

The apex court's senior puisne judge, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, has said he is not afraid of any misconduct reference rumored to be filed against him in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

"Why fear a reference when you haven't done anything wrong?" said the judge, who was slated to become the chief justice of Pakistan prior to promulgation of the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Justice Shah was having an informal interaction with journalists after the oath taking of seven new Supreme Court judges on Friday.

In reply to a question, he said he would deal with the reference if and when it was filed. "I have no personal enmity against anyone," he added.

PM's aide on political affairs Rana Sanaullah earlier this week stated that two senior SC judges were liable to misconduct proceedings as they were writing letters on every issue containing critical remarks and leaking them to the media.

Sanaullah had, however, issued a clarification later, stating that his statement about filing a reference against the judges was neither an announcement nor a threat.

Justice Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar were among the four judges who recently wrote a letter to the chief justice of Pakistan, Yahya Afridi, on issuance of a new seniority list of the judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Earlier, on December 7, Justice Shah wrote a letter to CJ Afridi, urging him to convene a full court for hearing the petitions filed against the 26th Constitutional Amendment. Justice Shah had also written letters to Afridi's predecessor Justice Qazi Faez Isa on more than one occasion and had severely criticized him for allegedly undermining judicairty on the day of his retirement.

In his recent interaction with journalists, CJ Afridi had complained that the letters he received from some judges were already leaked to the media before he could review them.

According to a report, Federal Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar had stated that Rana Sanaullah never talked about filing a reference against the judges except for presenting his point of view on "misconduct" by some of the judges amid growing tensions over the nomination and transfer of senior jurists.

Talking to the host of Express News' show Centre Stage, PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui on Friday also clarified that the federal government had no plan to move a reference against any judge.

"If such an intention existed, the government would have certainly stated it. Such an action is not carried out in secrecy; there is a proper procedure for it. No such action is being considered, nor has it been discussed in the cabinet."

He said that Rana Sanaullah did mention that the conduct of certain judges could fall under the category of a reference. "However, the law minister clarified that the government is not filing any reference.

"If such a plan were in place, it would be made public," he added.

Interaction with journalists

Responding to another comment of a journalist that judges were not doing their jobs, Justice Shah stated performance of judges could be gauged by viewing their judgements and their rate of concluding trials.

"It is publicly available as to how many of someone's decisions have been published in law books. All records are available on the Supreme Court's website," he added.

According to some reports, Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi had allegedly said that judges were not performing their duties.

The senior puisne judge noted that he interacts with his brother judges and drinks tea with them. However, in a cryptic reference to his differences with some other judges, he said, "What I could say if no one could see the elephant in the room?"