The Supreme Court of Pakistan has reserved the verdict in former judge Shaukat Siddiqui’s removal case.
A five-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa heard on Tuesday the petition filed by the former senior puisne judge of the Islamabad High Court. The bench comprises Justice Aminuddin Khan, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Justice Irfan Saadat.
As the hearing resumed the top judge observed that the right to speech is available to every person. The proceedings of the case were live broadcast on the Supreme Court website.
Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) had removed Siddiqui from service in 2018, months after accusing the former director general Lt General Faiz Hameed of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for designing a coup against the then Nawaz Sharif’s government. He had made the accusations during a speech he had delivered at the meeting of the Rawalpindi Bar Association. Siddiqui later challenged his removal in the SC.
Hamid Khan has represented Siddiqui while Khawaja Haris and Wasim Sajjad appeared as Gen Hameed and Justice Kasi’s lawyers whom Siddiqui nominated as parties in the case.
Hamid Khan earlier appealed to the court to conduct a transparent inquiry into the entire matter his client had raised in the application.
When the bench asked about the accusations against Siddiqui, Hamid replied it related to a speech. He also requested the top court to quash the SJC decision against Siddiqui. The court later reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from all sides.
