Alleged judicial misconduct: Complaint against CJP, 3 other judges submitted to SJC

ISLAMABAD: A complaint against four judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, including Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, was lodged on Monday before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for their alleged judicial misconduct.

A complainant named Sardar Salman Ahmad Dogar (advocate) lodged the complaint with the SJC against Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi.

In his complaint, the complainant accused the chief justice and the other three judges of violating Articles III, IV, V, VI and IX of the code of conduct for the apex court judges.

According to above mentioned articles, the judge’s conduct in all things, official and private, be free from impropriety; enshrine the rule against bias and conflict of interest either direct or indirect; ensuring that justice is not only done, but is also seen to be done; counsel against engaging in public controversy, least of all on a political question; employment of the influence of a judge’s position to gain undue advantage, whether immediate or future; and maintenance of harmony within his own court, as well as among all courts and for the integrity of the institution of justice.

“Even a bare perusal of the recent proceedings in Supreme Court of Pakistan and the conduct of these four judges, strongly suggest that they have publicly been involved in controversies surrounding their judicial conduct, which is a violation of code of conduct and the constitution,” says the complaint.

The complainant accused the Chief Justice of Pakistan of “judicial and administrative misconduct” over his failure to probe the allegations against Justice Naqvi as chairman SJC.

He also accused the Chief Justice of Pakistan of “bench fixing to favour certain political parties”, adding “the four judges have developed a majority to manipulate decisions, whereby references against judges are ignored, the same bench is constituted by the chief justice in important matters to manipulate decisions in their favour, and the same is also a blatant misuse of the discretionary power of the chief justice to form benches”.

“The exercise of this power cannot be without rhyme and reason, and it cannot, most certainly, be used in such a manner whereby decisions are manipulated by the chief justice by constituting favourable benches,” says the complaint.

The complainant also claimed that in the election delay case, the three-judge bench did not hear the stakeholders and parties.

“This is clearly against the principles of justice, violation of Article 10A, and also judicial misconduct, considering that this has been a consistent practice of the four judges,” he added.

Interestingly, the complainant also asked senior puisne judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa to chair SJC meeting in place of Chief Justice Bandial as he can no longer head it as he is the one being investigated and must be replaced as per Article 209(2).

He called for the removal of Justice Ahsan with Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in the SJC.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023