ISLAMABAD: Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan, a sitting judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC), on Thursday filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking an open trial of the reference of professional misconduct being heard against him by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
The judge filed the application through senior lawyer Hamid Khan, making the federation and the SJC as respondents. The judge requested the court to stay the proceedings being conducted against him by the SJC until his application is decided. He contended that the SJC cannot act on a simple application having no evidence and documents supporting the allegations. The application also questioned paragraph 13 of the SJC Procedure of Inquiry 2005 which deals with in-camera proceedings by saying that the section is in violation of Articles 4, 10A, 18 and 25 of the constitution because it does not allow trial before the council to take place in accordance with the law, thus it may be declared as unconstitutional. It contended that the sanctity of no institution could be protected by making it a cloistered virtue. The name of Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan was surfaced in the Panama Papers leaks in 2016 for owning an offshore holding.
When his name was surfaced in the Panama Papers leaks, the Lahore High Court Bar Association had announced to boycott the judge, until he got his name cleared of the charges of misconduct. It may be recalled here that a five-member Supreme Court bench is also hearing a similar plea filed by a sitting judge of the Islamabad High Court seeking an open trial of the reference of misconduct being heard against him by the SJC. While hearing Justice Siddiqui’s plea, the court has observed that why judges should be treated as ‘holy cows’.
At present, the SJC is seized with four references filed against Justice Mazhar Ali Naqvi and Justice Farrukh Irfan of the Lahore High Court and Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court.
A reference against Justice Anwar Khan Kasi, sitting chief justice of the Islamabad High Court related to illegal hiring of his own brother and 74 other individuals is still pending with the SJC. Similarly, two references against Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, one pertaining to misuse of authority for personal gains and other involving misconduct when he addressed a lawyers’ general body meeting, are awaiting decisions.
Published in Daily Times, November 10th 2017.
