ISLAMABAD: A former senior official of the defen­­ce ministry has filed a complaint in the Supreme Ju­­d­icial Council (SJC) aga­inst two judges of the Supreme Court over alleged breach of code of conduct.

Former director general of Federal Government Educatio­nal Institutions (Cantt/Garrison) Khushdil Khan Malik also briefly served as the Khyber Pakhtun­khwa minister, but was de-notified because he was a government servant at the time he was picked up for the caretaker set-up.

In his complaint, Mr Ma­­lik contended that Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Muneeb Akhtar had allegedly breached the code of conduct as required to be observed by the judges of superior courts.

The complaint referred to Article X of the Code of Conduct that states “a judge shall take all steps to decide cases within the shortest time, controlling effectively efforts made to prevent early disposal of cases and make every endeavour to minimise suffering of litigants by deciding cases expeditiously through proper written judgements. A judge who is unmindful towards this aspect of his duty is not faithful to his work, which is great fault”.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar accused of breaching code of conduct for judges

According to the complainant, an SC bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel (now reti­r­­ed) and Justice Munib Akh­tar (still on the bench) had heard his petition on Sept 12, 2018. The case was concluded on Sept 15 that year and on April 15, 2019, he approached the court for passing an appropriate order on his petition.

The judgement was an­­n­ounced on July 5, 2021 aft­er two years and 10 months, which is a violation of Arti­cle-X of the Code of Cond­uct, the complaint said, adding that the judgement was instantly replaced by another verdict and page-7 of the decision was later amended which was different from the one the complainant obtained from the court earlier.

It said the complainant then filed a review petition before a bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan. The review petition was then taken up on Oct 6 this year when the deputy attorney general produced a new document before the ben­ch which was never part of the case record nor confronted to the complainant, it said, adding that the bench after perusal of the document dismissed the review petition.

As per the complaint, the bench could not entertain additional document in the review jurisdiction and it was again a breach of the code of conduct.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2023