ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Just­ice Aamer Farooq on Wednesday constituted two different larger benches to hear complaints of senior puisne judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Babar Sattar.

According to a senior official of the court, the bench comprising CJ Farooq, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir will hear the complaint of Justice Kayani.

Another larger bench comprising Justice Kayani and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri will hear the complaint of Justice Sattar.

The IHC registrar office would notify the date of hearing in a couple of days.

IHC registrar office to notify hearing within a couple of days

According to the sources, the senior puisne judge in addition to a recent unsigned complaint of so-called affected judges of the district judiciary filed against him also referred a Vlog and a television programme in which lawyer Mohammad Waqas Malik in an interview criticised the judge.

Advocate Malik also filed a reference against Justice Kayani in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) a couple of days after six judges wrote a letter to the Supreme Court against meddling of intelligence agencies in the judicial affairs.

Advocate Malik is a former general secretary of Islamabad High Court Bar Association and alleged in the reference that Justice Kayani “waged a war against the forces of Pakistan in a planned manner by inducing and convincing other judges of the high court”.

The unsigned complaint filed against Justice Kayani last week stated that the judge was biased against the judges who joined the Islamabad’s subordinate judiciary from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The complaint also named certain lawyers who were the associate of Justice Kayani while he was a practicing lawyer.

According to the sources, Justice Sattar in the complaint had requested IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq for initiating contempt proceedings after personal details of his and his family, including their US residence permits, were posted online.

Justice Sattar pointed out that the privacy of his family members was breached, and their identity cards and permanent residency card were uploaded on social media.

On April 28, the IHC’s public relations office issued a statement in response to the social media campaign, calling it ‘false, malicious and contemptuous’.

The press release stated that the judge was also accused of hiding assets in both Pakistan and the US.

“Justice Babar Sattar has never had any nationality other than that of Pakistan,” the IHC clarified, adding that while Justice Sattar worked as a lawyer in New York and was granted a green card, he left his job in the US in 2005 and returned to Pakistan and has lived and worked in Pakistan since then“.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2024