Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi resigns as top court judge
Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi — who was facing complaints of misconduct — resigned from the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday, saying that it was no longer possible for him to continue due to circumstances which were “a matter of public knowledge”.
The resignation letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was addressed to President Dr Arif Alvi.
“It was an honour to be appointed and to serve as a judge first of the Lahore High Court and then as the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In the circumstances which are a matter of public knowledge and to some extent public record, it is no longer possible for me to continue to serve as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” Justice Naqvi said.
“Considerations of due process also compel. I, therefore, effective today resign as judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he added.
The development comes a day after the Supreme Court rejected Justice Naqvi’s request to stay proceedings against him in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) over alleged misconduct.
In a letter penned to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and all top court judges in December, Justice Naqvi had stated that the treatment meted out to him by the SJC was “nothing short of disgraceful”.
Reacting to the resignation, PML-N’s Khawaja Asif said that the mere acceptance of the resignation was not enough. He said that the assets of judges and their heirs should be scrutinised, as is the practice with politicians.
Journalist Hasnaat Malik said it was a “big blow” for ex-CJP Umar Ata Bandial’s “camp”.
“His resignation will affect next chief justice Ijazul Ahsan’s position. Will SC as an institution strengthen after Justice Naqvi resignation?” he wondered.
Proceedings against Justice Naqvi
Early last year, references were filed before the SJC against Justice Naqvi after his name surfaced in connection with an alleged audio leak.
In October last year, the SJC had issued a show-cause notice to Justice Naqvi in connection with 10 complaints lodged against him and directed the judge to submit a reply within two weeks.
Headed by CJP Isa, the SJC comprises Justice Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Lahore High Court Chief Justice (CJ) Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, and Balochistan High Court (BHC) CJ Naeem Akhtar.
In a preliminary reply submitted in November, Justice Naqvi had cited “serious prejudice” against him and said CJP Isa, Justice Masood and CJ Akhtar should recuse themselves and not hear the matter.
On Nov 20, Justice Naqvi contested the SJC proceedings against him and also challenged the show-cause notice issued to him by the council, stating the initiation of proceedings was coram non-judice and without lawful authority.
Subsequently, the SJC had issued a fresh show-cause notice to Justice Naqvi on Nov 22, with a direction to come up with his defence by filing a reply within a fortnight.
On December 4, Justice Naqvi had again approached the apex court and expressed his intent to pursue the constitutional petition he had moved earlier seeking to quash the revised show-cause notice issued by the SJC.
Two days later, Justice Naqvi had invited the attention of the SC committee comprising three senior-most judges to the silence over his petitions challenging the issuance of the show-cause notice (SCN) despite the lapse of time as stipulated in the Supreme Court (Practice & Procedure) Act, 2023.
Justice Naqvi had also written a separate letter to the SJC secretary, asking the latter to furnish a number of documents without which, the judge said, he would not be in a position to prepare his reply to the show-cause notice within time.
On December 15, the SJC, in an open hearing, had given two weeks to the top court judge to respond to the misconduct allegations and directed him to submit a reply to the show-cause notice by January 1.
Subsequently, the judge had filed a detailed response to the show-cause notice, saying the allegations against him “absolutely and maliciously false”, giving a detailed response to each of the 10 allegations made against him.
In the detailed response, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, he said the SJC was not empowered to entertain any complaint against a judge and was only entitled to receiving “information”.
On January 8, Justice Naqvi had withdrawn his objection to the three-judge bench hearing his plea challenging the issuance of a show-cause notice to him.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request to stay Jan 11 SJC proceedings against Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, as Justice Ahsan described the council’s proceedings against his colleague “contrary to the established norms”.
Justice Ahsan — part of the five-member SJC — who had refused to join other members of the council on Nov 22, 2023, in the issuance of the show-cause notice to Justice Naqvi, regretted the hasty proceedings.
In his letter to the SJC members, Justice Ahsan regretted that debate and discussion have been non-existent and have not been 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 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 said.
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.