The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director-general Faiz Hamid and others on former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s petition challenging his removal.
The notices were also issued to former IHC chief justice Anwar Khan Kasi, former registrar of the Supreme Court Arbab Muhammad Arif and retired brigadier Irfan Ramay.
A five-member bench led by CJP Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan conducted proceedings on the plea.
Today’s proceedings were broadcast live on the apex court’s website as well as on its YouTube channel.
A day earlier, the top court ordered Siddiqui to nominate former spy chief Hamid, former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and others in the plea against his dismissal.
The case was fixed for hearing earlier this month after the judge filed a miscellaneous application with the Supreme Court to conduct an early hearing of his plea against the decision by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on his dismissal.
Following the order, the ex-judge filed a plea seeking to make Gen Hamid, Gen (retd) Bajwa, Ramay, Brigadier (retd) Faisal Marwat, Kasi, and Arif as parties in his case.
Lawyer Hamid Khan represented the former IHC judge in the case.
The Supreme Court stated that the former IHC judge has made serious allegations against some people and the top court believes that they should be given a chance to respond.
The SC then ordered Siddiqui’s counsel to amend his petition on the notices, directing him to resubmit within a week.
It must be noted that the former judge was removed from his position in the IHC for his speech targeting intelligence agencies when he was addressing the Rawalpindi Bar Association on July 21, 2018.
