ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Friday asked former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Azizi Siddiqui’s counsel if there was any army general who wanted to become the country’s prime minister in 2018.

The CJP’s remarks came during the hearing of Siddiqui’s petition challenging his dismissal.

“Was there any army general who wanted to become the prime minister?” asked CJP Isa.

He also remarked that if the allegations made by Siddiqui were true, then these army generals were facilitating someone else. 

A five-member bench led by CJP Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan is conducting proceedings on the plea.

Today’s proceedings are being broadcast live on the apex court’s website as well as on its YouTube channel.

A day earlier, the top court ordered Siddiqui to nominate former spy chief General Faiz Hamid, former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and others in the plea against his dismissal.

The case was fixed for hearing earlier this month after the judge filed a miscellaneous application with the Supreme Court to conduct an early hearing of his plea against the decision by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on his dismissal.

Following the order, the ex-judge filed a plea seeking to make Gen Hamid, Gen (retd) Bajwa, Brigadier (retd) Irfan Ramay, Brigadier (retd) Faisal Marwat, former IHC chief justice Anwar Kasi, and ex-SC registrar Arbab Arif as parties in his case.

Lawyer Hamid Khan represented the former IHC judge in the case. 

More to follow…