ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has restored the lawyer license of former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, three years after he was removed as a judge from the high court.
The decision was announced by the PBC’s three-member enrolment committee, headed by Justice Faez Isa. Syed Kalbe Hussain and Senator Azam Nazir Tarar are the other two members. Shaukat Siddiqui had applied for the restoration of the licence on September 6 this year.
In a statement, the bar council’s enrolment committee restored Siddiqui’s membership with immediate effect after concluding that the decision of his dismissal as a judge was not based on financial corruption or ethical grounds.
The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) removed Siddiqui as IHC judge in 2018, days after he launched into a diatribe against the country’s premier intelligence agency the ISI while addressing a Rawalpindi Bar Association event.
According to the statement, the licence of Siddiqui was suspended in November 2011 after his elevation to the high court, but in Nov 2018, he was sacked from the office by the president over his allegations against the premier spy agency.
During the meeting, the committee also noted that the judge was not removed on corruption or any similar charges that could have disentitled him from the restoration of his licence.
“Article 18 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan also guarantees that every citizen shall have the right to enter any lawful profession or occupation,” it said, adding that the committee was satisfied to restore the licence with an immediate effect.
Siddiqui had also faced allegations of financial corruption. However, a reference against him on those allegations remains pending. The reference was filed in 2015 amid allegations of the heavy expenditure incurred on the renovation of Siddiqui’s government residence.
The PBC enrolment committee found that the SJC decision to remove Siddiqui had nothing to do with the corruption allegations against him. Hence, the committee ruled to restore his licence.
The former judge attained the superannuation while his appeal was still pending. He is unlikely to become a judge again, but the PBC enrolment committee decision allows him to practice law at higher courts.
Siddiqui would not appear before the Islamabad High Court where he served as judge to uphold the tradition which forbids former judges to appear as lawyers before courts where they worked as a judge in the past.
