SC to hear former judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s appeal on Dec 14

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has fixed December 14 as the date for hearing the appeal of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui against his dismissal by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in 2018.

A five-member larger bench of the SC will hear the case.

Shaukat Siddiqui was sacked by the SJC, the apex body empowered to take disciplinary action against judges of superior judiciary, “on the grounds of misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a judge of a high court”.

The SJC had recommended his removal to the president, who had approved it on October 11, 2018.

The SJC’s decision was based on a speech that Siddiqui had delivered at the District Bar Association Rawalpindi on July 21, 2018, in which he had accused a spy agency of manipulating the judicial process and interfering in the affairs of the IHC.

He had also alleged that the spy agency had pressured him to give favourable verdicts in some high-profile cases, including the Faizabad sit-in case.

Siddiqui had challenged his dismissal in the SC, claiming that the SJC had violated his right to a fair trial and had not provided him with the evidence against him.

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He had also sought the formation of a larger bench to hear his appeal, as he had reservations over some of the judges who were part of the SJC.

Siddiqui’s appeal has been pending in the SC since 2018, and he has filed several applications for an early hearing of his case.

The last hearing of his case was held in June 2022, when the SC had hinted at deciding the case ‘soon’. However, the case was not fixed for hearing until recently, when Siddiqui submitted another application to the SC, requesting the court to fix the hearing of his petition on December 14 or on any day of the week starting from December 13.