Notice to ex-DG ISI Faiz Hamid, a retired Brigadier and 2 others in case against removal of IHC judge

By Editor Dec15,2023 #ISI #Pakistan Army

The Supreme Court has issued notices to four individuals, including ex-ISI chief Faiz Hamid, in a case regarding the removal of Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui from the Islamabad High Court. The judge was sacked after he spoke against the intelligence agencies during a speech at the Rawalpindi Bar Association in 2018.

The court, however, refused to make the former Army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa and two other retired Brigadiers as respondents. Justice Siddiqui had included them in his application. Bajwa still may be called to respond if retired Lt. General Hamid chooses to seek his response.

The five-member bench, led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, heard Siddiqui’s appeal against his removal. Notices were also issued to retired brigadiers Irfan Ramay and Faisal Marwat, former Islamabad High Court chief justice Anwar Khan Kasi, and a former Supreme Court registrar.

Siddiqui originally nominated seven individuals in his plea, but the court ruled three, including former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and retired brigadiers Tahir Wafai, lacked direct connection to the case.

The appeal stems from a Supreme Judicial Council opinion and a 2018 notification removing Siddiqui as a judge for a speech he delivered in 2018.

It must be noted that the former judge was removed from his position in the IHC for his speech targeting intelligence agencies when he was addressing the Rawalpindi Bar Association on July 21, 2018.

In his address, the ex-judge accused intelligence institutions of interfering in judicial work.

Multiple references were subsequently filed against him which included extra expenses on government residence, two related references against him passing remarks during hearing of the Faizabad sit-in case in 2017, another seeking his dismissal and one taken up by the SJC following on a complaint filed against him in the wake of the speeches.

He was eventually dismissed from the post on October 11, 2018, after the SJC decided to dismiss him.

The judge then challenged his dismissal by the SJC in 2018 and his case has been ongoing ever since with the last hearing on the constitutional petition held on June 13, 2022.

Siddiqui, in his petition, requested to cancel the dismissal notification issued against him as an IHC judge.

December 15, 2023

Source: Dawn

By Editor

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