ISLAMABAD: Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) — the only constitutional forum that can examine the conduct of superior courts judges – will convene today (Friday) to discuss complaints filed against the superior court judges.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa convened the meeting of the body. The forum is the only constitutional body that can examine the conduct of superior courts judges and recommend their removal under Article 209 of the Constitution.
The Chief Justice is the chairman while other members are Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Naeem Afghan.
The meeting has been scheduled to be held at 11:30am and will consider all pending complaints of misconduct against superior courts judges. According to sources, more than two dozen complaints have been pending with the SJC, some of them for years.
Under the SJC inquiry rules, the SJC chairman Qazi Faez Isa had referred complaints filed against the two serving SC judges and two retired Chief Justices to Justice Masood seeking his opinion. Some citizens had filed complaints against serving judge of the apex court Justice Ijazul Ahsan and former CJPs Umar Ata Bandial and Mian Saqib Nisar. A complaint had also been filed against Justice Ayesha Malik of the top court.
Justice Masood, after reviewing the complaints against the two serving judges, submitted his opinion to the SJC chairman, declaring that these complaints were not maintainable as they based on judicial orders upheld in the apex court.
According to Section 7 of the SJC Procedure of Enquiry Rules 2005, once any information in respect of inquiry into the conduct of a judge is received by any member or the council, it is presented to the SJC chairman.
Interestingly, no Supreme Court judge has so far been removed in the SJC’s history.
