Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu of Lahore High Court tendered his resignation on February 28, 2017, mere two days before the hearing of Supreme Judicial Conference where he had to personally appear. Justice Sidhu was issued notices pertaining to a misconduct reference. With Justice Sidhu resignation, Supreme Judicial Council has still 4 references pending before it against Justice Mazhar Ali Naqvi and Justice Farrukh Irfan of Lahore High Court and Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Islamabad High Court.
In order to ensure independence of judiciary, Constitution of Pakistan under Article 209 envisions ‘Supreme Judicial Council’ as the only judicial body competent enough to remove a judge of a High Court or Supreme Court, if found guilty of misconduct or incapable to perform his duties due to mental or physical incapacity. However, both the efficacy, sanctity of SJC and its track record project a rather dismal picture.
A reference against Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi, sitting Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court related to illegal hirings of his own brother and 74 other individuals is still pending with SJC. Interestingly, SC has decided the case of illegal hirings and all the appointees were sent home. Two references against another judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, one pertaining to misuse of authority for personal gains and other involving misconduct when he addressed a lawyer general body meeting were filed before SJC and await verdict.
Justice Siddiqui, during his last appearance before the Supreme Judicial Council, has demanded for an open trial rather than in camera proceedings that council holds while hearing references as per its rules.
Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi of Lahore High Court who was summoned to appear before Supreme Judicial Council, filed a petition under Article 184 (3) last April. In his petition he brought in question the rules of SJC and labelled them against the ‘spirit of Constitution’. Even after the lapse of almost a year, Justice Naqvi continues to perform his duties and due to in camera proceedings of SJC, little is known about the progress made. The fate of another reference against Justice Farrukh Irfan, ironically whose name also figured in Panama Papers, of LHC is no different.
Both former and present chief justices of Pakistan, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had reiterated their stance to clean higher judiciary of black sheep and individuals of questionable repute.
‘There are precedents when Supreme Judicial Council sacked judges, case in point is PCO judges. The point is that Supreme Court has reactivated the Supreme Judicial Council, after a long time. Now, Chief Justice has said that he’ll check performance of judges very minutely and carefully. Once Supreme Judicial Council issues show-cause notice and a judge makes his presence, an option is given to them to resign or face the proceedings. Although there is a catch, if a judge has served for more than 5 years and he resigns in face of a pending reference, he’ll get the pension and full perks as a retired judge gets. The excitement and massive public interest Supreme Court saw during the daily hearings of Panama Papers Case over past 2 months has subsided to a great degree. Now is the time that judiciary can focus and bring order among its ranks,’ said Majid Bashir, a former Judge, when asked about the functioning of Supreme Judicial Council.
