In a rare development, the Supreme Court’s second senior-most judge after the incumbent chief justice, Ijaz Ul Ahsan, resigned on Thursday.
Ahsan, who would become the next chief justice of Pakistan after incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa, has sent his resignation to President Arif Alvi, raising questions over his untimely departure.
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The major event comes within a day of Justice (retd) Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi’s resignation, which has also been accepted by the president today.
Ahsan would have become the chief justice — the highest judicial office in the country that comes with supreme power — after CJP Isa’s term concluded in October this year as Justice Tariq Masood, the senior puisne judge, would hang his robes before that.
In his resignation to the president, Ahsan said he no longer wished to continue as the top court’s judge, therefore, he was resigning under Article 206(1) of the Constitution with immediate effect.
Both the judges were considered ‘close’ to former CJP Umar Ata Bandial, with analysts saying that the jurists were involved in issuing controversial orders — along with another judge, Justice Munib Akhtar.
While Bandial was in office, the fault lines between the top court’s judges were visible. This trend diminished when CJP Isa came to the helm, but the damage had already been done.
Senior journalist Hamid Mir told Geo News that two references were being drafted against Ahsan, of which he might have caught wind, leading him to adopt “a way out” i.e. skip accountability.
“This wasn’t unexpected; lawyers were already talking about it. Had he remained in office, he would be facing two separate references,” Mir, a seasoned journalist, added.
“This is a good thing. There is nothing concerning about it. A new tradition has begun: the Supreme Court judges who misused their offices are facing references filed by lawyers,” Mir also said.
Raising concerns, senior anchorperson Shahzeb Khanzada wondered why would a person who would become the CJP in 10 months resign prematurely.
“If he feared that he would face charges, then he should have stayed and faced them like Qazi Faez Isa did,” Khanzada said.
In April last year, a lawyer filed a reference before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against then-CJP Bandial and three other judges — Justice Ahsan, Justice Akhtar, and Justice Naqvi.
The complainant based his reference on an alleged violation of the Code of Conduct for judges of the superior judiciary issued by the SJC on September 2, 2009.
