ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday issued notices to former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director-general Faiz Hamid and others on former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s petition challenging his removal.
The notices were also issued to former IHC top judge Anwar Khan Kasi, former registrar of the Supreme Court Arbab Muhammad Arif and retired brigadier Irfan Ramay.
A 5-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan conducted proceedings on the plea.
Today’s proceedings were broadcast live on the supreme court’s website as well as on its YouTube channel.
A day earlier, the apex court ordered Siddiqui to nominate former spy chief Faiz Hamid, former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and others in the plea against his dismissal.
The case was fixed for hearing earlier this month after the judge filed a miscellaneous application with the apex court to conduct an early hearing of his plea against the ruling by the Supreme Judicial Council on his dismissal.
Following the order, the former judge filed a plea seeking to make General Faiz Hamid, General (retd) Qamar Bajwa, Brigadier (retd) Faisal Marwat, Brigadier (retd) Irfan Ramay, former IHC chief justice Anwar Kasi, and former SC registrar Arbab Arif as parties in his case.
Lawyer Hamid Khan represented the former judge in the case.
At the outset of the hearing, lawyer Hamid Khan said that he was seeking the “impleadment” of the 7 respondents.
Barrister Salahuddin, who is representing bar associations, said that he was also seeking the impleadement of the same individuals except for Justice (retd) Anwar Kasi as he was already impleaded as respondent number four in his petition.
Chief Justice then asked Hamid Khan if all the allegations made by the petitioner in his plea and speech were correct, to which he replied, yes, absolutely.
You have filed a plea under Article 184(3), said CJP, adding that if your allegation is correct then these [army generals] were facilitating someone to [become the prime minister].
CJP said that your allegations mean that the [army generals] did not benefit themselves but their action caused harm to someone else while another one benefitted.
CJP told Khan that if these accusations are proven to be true then you have started an investigation against the Constitution.
He asked if the individuals in Siddiqui’s petition were either benefiting themselves or someone else. If those individuals were facilitating someone else then more people will also get trapped in this case.
The CJP then read out the points from Siddiqui’s speech.
Who were they wanting to benefit? asked the CJP, to which, Hamid Khan said that they wanted to get the results of 2018 elections of their own choice.
The top judge asked who was the beneficiary when all these persons were facilitating someone.
Barrister Salahuddin then said that things should be done step-by-step, at which the chief justice said that everything is interconnected.
Salahuddin said that the accusations were also levelled that manoeuvring was done within the judiciary by certain army officers in order to keep one person out of electoral politics.
Why are shying from taking names? asked top judge from Salahuddin, to which he named Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif and his opponents.
Judge’s removal
It is to be mentioned here that the former judge was removed from his position in the Islamabad High Court for his speech targeting intelligence agencies when he was addressing the Rawalpindi Bar Association on 21 July 2018.
In his address, the former judge accused intelligence institutions of interfering in judicial work.
