Pakistan’s Second Senior Judge Steps Down
The top judge told President Arif Alvi in his letter of retirement that he no longer wanted to work for the government.
Pakistan’s Second Senior Judge Steps Down: The second-highest judge on the Pakistan Supreme Court, who was supposed to be the next chief justice, quit on Thursday, which came as a surprise.
A day before Justice Ijazul Ahsan quit, Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi also quit as a high court judge.
Pakistan’s Second Senior Judge Steps Down
The top judge told President Arif Alvi in his letter of retirement that he no longer wanted to work for the government. “Because of this, I, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, resign as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan immediately in line with Article 206(1) of the Constitution,” he wrote.
He also said that being a judge of the Lahore High Court, the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, and a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was an honor and a pleasure.
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This happened after President Alvi accepted Justice Naqvi’s retirement earlier Thursday. Justice Naqvi was facing an investigation by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for alleged wrongdoing and chose to step down.
It was also made up of five people, including Justice Ahsan. On November 22, 2023, Justice Naqvi was given a new “show-cause” notice, but Justice Ahsan refused to join the other council members.
He was also one of the five judges who threw out former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017 over the scandalous Panamagate case. As a reviewing judge, his job was to keep an eye on how the Panamagate case decision, which found Sharif guilty of two corruption charges, was carried out.
Marriyum Aurangzeb, who is the press secretary for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, asked why Justices Ahsan and Naqvi quit their jobs. “Do they really think that quitting the highest court will make up for wrongs they’ve done?” Aurangzeb said that the two judges had “done injustice” to the people of the country. He also said that if an elected prime minister could be questioned, then everyone, even a Supreme Court judge, should be able to do the same.
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