ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court directed the counsel for former Islam­abad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Tuesday to satisfy the bench whether criticising a spy agency and his own institution was not contradictory to judges’ code of conduct.

A five-member bench of the apex court — headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial — resumed hearing on Mr Siddiqui’s petition against the proceedings of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and his subsequent sacking in the wake of a speech he delivered in 2018.

Hamid Khan, Mr Siddi­qui’s counsel, argued that two members of the SJC — former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar and senior puisne judge Justice Asif Saeed Khosa — were biased against the former IHC judge.

Justice Bandial questioned the speech made by Mr Siddiqui in which he openly criticised the judiciary and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Justice Bandial said that such a matter should have been taken up with the chief justice.

Mr Khan responded that Mr Siddiqui had repeatedly requested the then CJP Nisar for a meeting, but his requests had been turned down. Subsequently, he delivered the speech at Rawalpindi’s District Bar Association in July 2018, he added.

In that speech, the former judge accused the ISI of manipulating judicial proceedings and using its influence for constituting benches of its choice to obtain favourable judgements.

During the hearing, Justice Bandial asked why Mr Siddiqui did not produce any evidence of such interference before the SJC.

Mr Khan argued that under the set practice, an inquiry should have been constituted before the SJC started the proceedings against Mr Siddiqui. He insisted that Mr Siddiqui was put on trial without being inquired.

Justice Bandial pointed out that there was no need of conducting an inquiry in disciplinary proceedings. He, however, offered the counsel to prepare arguments on this aspect as well as the code of conduct of a judge.

The hearing has been adjourned until January.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2021