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ISLAMABAD: Former ISI chief Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid and Brig Irfan Ramay on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the Constitution does not provide for continuation of proceedings by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against judges who either resigned from his office or retired on reaching superannuation prior to the conclusion of such proceedings.<\/p>\n
In a 23-page concise statement, both the army officers, through their counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, contended that any provision of the Constitution which confers upon SJC any power, duty, or obligation to initiate or continue proceedings against a retired judge would not only violative of Article 195 that deals with the retiring age of the high court judge as well as Article 209 (SJC) rather amount to rewriting of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, a five-judge Supreme Court on Jan 23 had reserved<\/a> its ruling on an appeal<\/a> of former outspoken Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui against SJC opinion, as well as Oct 11, 2018 notification under which he was removed as the superior court judge for his July 21, 2018 speech at the District Bar Association Rawalpindi.<\/p>\n In his speech, the former judge had made remarks against the involvement of certain officers of the executive organ of the state, specifically the ISI, in the affairs of the judiciary to allegedly manipulating the formation of the benches of the high court.<\/p>\n Say Article 209 limits SJC powers, excluding post-retirement proceedings<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The SJC, in its recommendations, had held that by making a speech at the District Bar Association Rawalpindi on July 21, 2018, Justice Siddiqui had not only violated some express provisions of the code of conduct but had displayed conduct unbecoming of the judge and thus violated the traditional requirements of behaviour expected of the superior court judge.<\/p>\n While closing the hearing, the Supreme Court had also sought opinion from lawyers representing different respondents to ascertain whether SJC had conducted any inquiry before recommending remo\u00adv\u00ad\u00adal of Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui from his office.<\/p>\n \n