Islamabad:
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court set aside a provisional order of the Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC) that had restricted Judge Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri to carry out judicial work.
On Tuesday, a Constitutional Bank (CB) of the SC, headed by Judge Aminuddin Khan and comprising Judge Jamal Khan Commandkhail, Judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Judge Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Judge Shahid Bassan, resumed the request of Judge Judge Jahangiri.
On September 16, a bank of the IHC division led by the president of Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar prevented Judge Jahangiri from doing his duties at the beginning of the procedures in a request as a quo order that he accused him of having a doubtful title of LLB.
On September 19, five IHC judges, including Judge Jhangiri, went to the Supreme Court in person to present separate constitutional requests, making eleven different sentences, including one that seeks the annulment of the IHC order that prohibits Jahangiri from judicial work.
However, on September 25, the University of Karachi canceled the judge’s title in the light of a previous decision of its union, which further complicated the situation.
During Tuesday’s procedures, Pakistan Attorney (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan appeared before the Bank and argued that a judge cannot be prohibited by judicial work through an interim order.
Judge Aminuddin Khan asked the petitioner, the defender of Mian Dawood, for his opinion. Dawood agreed with the AGP, saying that in his opinion also, a judge cannot be restricted to perform judicial tasks through an interim order.
Munir Un Malik, Judge Judge Jehangiri, while progressing arguments, referred to an previous CB order, noting that he had only declared that the writing request was maintainable. He argued that, in his opinion, only the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has the authority to proceed against a judge.
He added that the Malik Asad Ali case did not argue that such writings were maintained in the Superior Court, and care must be taken not to give the impression that the SC had supported the maintenance of the writings in this context.
Judge Aminuddin Khan commented that the SC order only reproduced the language of the Malik Asad Ali case. Judge Jamal Khan Commandkhail said the court had previously argued that only the SJC could eliminate a judge.
Judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar said that the Court was not touching the maintainability of an order of Quo Guarano in this matter. “We have not said anywhere that the letter is maintained before the Superior Court. It is for the IHC to decide whether the request presented there is maintainable or not.”
In addition, he pointed out that the objections of the Office of the Registry on the request of Quo Warranto against Judge Jahangiri are still pending, and the only question before the SC was if a judge could be prevented from working through an interim order.
Judge Commandkhail observed that the arguments in the IHC writing request claimed that SC judges and the Superior Court are under the service of Pakistan and are not holders of public office, points that can be discussed when the IHC listens to the case for merit.
“In the present case, we deliberately do not want to enter the merits,” he added.
