SJC completes proceedings against Justice Mazahir Naqvi

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Judicial Council has completed the proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Mazahir Naqvi.

The arguments of the complainants are complete, the sources said, adding that the complainants placed all the evidence and relevant documents before the Council.

The objections of Justice Mazahir Naqvi were also examined in the Council.

Other issues were also reviewed that whether Justice Mazahar Naqvi be issued a second show cause notice or not, whether the objections of Justice Naqvi be accepted or rejected.

However, consultations between members of the Supreme Judicial Council continued, sources said.

On Monday, senior counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed represented Justice Naqvi and advanced preliminary arguments before the council. During the proceedings, the officers of the Lahore Cantonment Board were also present.

The SJC rejected a complaint against Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, himself an SJC member. During the last hearing on  Oct 27, complainant Amna Malik was directed to produce material in support of her complaint.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, the SJC comprised Justice Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, and Balochistan High Court CJ Naeem Akhtar Afghan. On Monday, the SJC recorded the statement of Amna Malik, who was also questioned and the complaint was also exhibited.

The SJC had issued a notice to Justice Masood with a direction to remain in attendance if he wanted to rebut the allegations against him. The complainant was questioned but gave unsatisfactory answers, rather withheld information. The complainant conceded that her complaint was not justified in light of the documents seen by her.

Justice Masood was of the view that since he had been publicly defamed and as the complainant herself conceded that it was factually incorrect, he requested that action be taken against her and against Advocate M Azhar Siddique, who had tweeted her complaint.

Justice Masood had also requested that since he was publicly defamed, he should be publicly exonerated too, and that the order passed on Monday as well as the examination of the complainant and answ­ers to questions be disclosed.

Since the complainant herself stated that her complaint should not have been filed as the allegations were not correct, the SJC held that there was no substance to the complaint. Consequently, the SJC opined that the complaint was filed maliciously to defame Justice Masood. However, the SJC decided the decision on proceedings against the complainant for filing a false complaint would be taken later.

About the request of Justice Masood, SJC stated that Clause 13 of the Supreme Judicial Council Procedure of Enquiry 2005 stipulated that the proceedings of the council should be conducted in-camera and should not be open to the public.

However, Clause 13(3) of the procedure also states that the proceedings, if so directed by the council, could be reported. Accordingly, considering the request of Justice Masood, who wants public exoneration, the stated proceedings should be reported by the secretary of the council and uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website, it said.

In view of the fact that the complaint was stated to be tweeted by M Azhar Siddique, the SJC issued notice to the lawyer to explain within a week whether he tweeted the complaint and if in affirmative, why should action under the law not be taken against him, the order sai