Mixed reactions over sacking of high court judge

ISLAMABAD: Senior lawyers of Pakistan’s Supreme Court and the Islamabad Bar Association elicited a mixed response on Friday following the dismissal of Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, a high court judge accused of “misconduct”, on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a day earlier.
The five-member SJC – an apex body empowered to take disciplinary action against judges of superior judiciary – said in a 39-page detailed verdict on Friday that Siddiqui had “displayed conduct unbecoming of a judge of a High Court and was, thus, guilty of misconduct.”
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar also expressed his confidence in the SJC and said that judges who “do not work will be held accountable.”
In July this year, Siddiqui had criticized a leading agency of the country for its alleged meddling in the judicial affairs of the country. Later, the chief justice of Pakistan took notice of his statement and referred the matter to the judicial council for further action.
Javed Akbar, President of the Islamabad Bar Association (IBR), lauded the move, saying: “It is a good decision and received well in the lawyers’ fraternity.”
He added that Siddiqui was invited to the Rawalpindi Bar in July to give a lecture on legal ethics, but he made ‘irresponsible comments’ in his speech about a premier security agency of the country.
Akbar said that the ousted judge was left with no legal recourse since he had been removed from his position following a due process of law. “There is no remedy now,” he told Arab News, adding that Siddiqui could not even continue his legal practice after being removed on charges of misconduct.
Siddiqui rose to prominence last year after he directed the federal government to deal with ‘blasphemous content’ on social media websites and banned Valentine’s Day celebrations for being “un-Islamic.”
He was also part of the two-member bench that excluded anti-terrorism clauses from the case against Mumtaz Qadri, who killed former Punjab governor Salman Taseer and was later hanged to death.
Barrister Masroor Shah said Siddiqui violated the ‘code of conduct’ for judges as he publicly blamed a state institution of meddling in the judicial processes and this was “conduct unbecoming of a judge”.
“A proper legal process has been followed under Article 209 of the constitution and Siddiqui has been given a fair chance to prove himself innocent,” he told Arab News. “Unfortunately, he failed to substantiate his allegations.”
Shah said that the entire fabric of the society would be in tatters if people sitting in high positions started blaming state institutions openly without any evidence.
“The SJC has set a good example [by recommending the removal of the judge],” he said, adding: “I hope this will serve as a good precedent in other cases, too.”
Siddiqui was elevated as Additional Judge of Islamabad High Court in November 2011 to represent the Punjab province. “Siddiqui is a strong communicator, blessed with gifted qualities to express his thought and feelings through spoken words and in writings,” reads his bio on the court’s website.
Advocate Sharafat Ali said that the ousted judge was a professional lawyer and nobody could doubt his judicial skills and acumen, but his public remarks against a state institution were not received well in the legal fraternity.
“We hope the SJC will dispose off other pending cases against some judges as quickly as it decided [this one] against Siddiqui,” he told Arab News.
However, Habibullah Khan, a Supreme Court advocate, expressed his dismay over Siddiqui’s removal, saying the SJC should not have resorted to “unnecessary haste” to take up the case against him. “This was a political case and the Supreme Court should not have intervened in it,” he told Arab News.
He said this was the second case in Pakistan’s judicial history where a sitting judge had been punished for “misconduct” and this would not bode well for the institution itself, if people started filing complaints against the judges with the SJC.