Complaint against CJP filed in SJC

ISLAMABAD: A complaint has been filed in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial. A lawyer, Raja Sibtain Khan, has filed the complaint, wherein, he submitted that CJP Bandial has been found guilty of misconduct and so he should be removed from office, immediately.

A three-judge bench on April 4 declared the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to postpone polls in the Punjab province as “unconstitutional” and fixed May 14 as the date for the polls in the province.

The ECP on March 22 had delayed the Punjab assembly election by more than five months, citing the deteriorating security situation in the cash-starved country.

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The government rejected the Supreme Court’s decision, terming it a “minority verdict”, with the National Assembly passing a resolution against the top court. The National Assembly urged the government and the premier not to obey the apex court’s orders as it was a “minority verdict”.

According to the complaint, the chief justice “devised groupings within the vagaries of the Supreme Court of Pakistan”, and “he remained successful throughout keeping in his basket four other hon’ble Judges of this Court and thus guilty of misconduct by luring those hon’ble Judges for his own personal motives and benefits”.

Sibtain contended that the chief justice constituted a bench according to these groupings “so that he might be able to score a majority order” in the case over delay of provincial elections “which is not only violation of Article 10-A of the Constitution but has also jeopardised the Constitutional and Fundamental Rights of the people of Pakistan”.

The complainant argues further that, with these acts, the chief justice demonstrated “unfaithfulness and disloyalty to the State” and “miserably failed to perform his functions honestly and to preserve, protect, and defend the interest of the State”.

“Jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Council is being invoked to form an opinion that the incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, is guilty of misconduct, be removed from his office, after inquiring into the matter, in accordance with the Article 209(6) of the Constitution by the President,” stated the lawyer in his complaint. The complaint against the SJC comes amid an ongoing battle between the coalition PDM government and the judiciary over the holding of elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023