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In a shocking development, Supreme Court Justice Ijazul Ahsan on Thursday resigned from his position, a day after Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi did the same.
Justice Ahsan was slated to be the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) after CJP Qazi Faez Isa.
President Dr Arif Alvi earlier today accepted Justice Naqvi’s resignation after the judge, who is facing complaints of misconduct, tendered his resignation as a judge of the Supreme Court a day ago.
Naqvi was facing a Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) inquiry over allegations of misconduct, a show-cause notice for which was issued in October last year. On Tuesday, the apex court had rejected his request to stay the proceedings.
Justice Ahsan — part of the five-member SJC — had refused to join other members of the council on Nov 22, 2023, in the issuance of a fresh show-cause notice to Justice Naqvi.
In his letter to the SJC members on Tuesday, Justice Ahsan regretted the hasty proceedings and that debate and discussion were non-existent and were not permitted during the ongoing council proceedings. “Thus Nov 22, 2023 proceedings when the second show-cause notice was issued against Justice Naqvi were completely devoid of any discussion or deliberation whatsoever,” he had said.
This manner of proceedings has cast an unwelcome doubt over the whole process, therefore he disagreed with the process followed and the manner in which the proceedings were being conducted, Justice Ahsan explained.
Referring to the allegations in the complaint against the judge, the letter regretted these were utterly without merit or substance, both in law and even on a prima facie appraisal of the facts.
“Of these, allegations a few relate to the properties or transactions of properties of the sons of the respondent judge when the sons were lawyers in practice and persons of independent means.” The sons are effectively being condemned unheard, the letter regretted.
The thrust of the allegations is that the properties have been transacted at values supposedly far below their market value but not a shred of any credible evidence has been produced by the complainants in this regard.
“If the judge had been given an opportunity as suggested and the properties mentioned found to be declared in his tax returns, the matter of whether there had been any undervaluation as alleged would then be for the tax authorities to determine under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001,” the letter said.
The letter regretted that a reasoned and deliberative approach ought to have been adopted which would have prevented the council from falling into the error that has now been committed with the issuance of the show-cause notice.
More to follow.
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