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ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Saturday “approved” constitution of an inquiry commission over allegations of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges and appointed former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (retired) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani as its head, Geo News reported citing sources.
The sources said the one-member commission would hold inquiry into the allegations levelled by the judges in a letter.
The IHC judges — Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, and Justice Saman Fafat Imtiaz — had on March 26 sent a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), urging it to convene a judicial convention over the alleged interference of intelligence agencies in judicial affairs.
In response to the letter, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa had on March 28 said that meddling by the executive in the affairs and “judicial workings of Judges will not be tolerated” come what may.
He had said this during a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the Supreme Court in Islamabad. The chief justice and PM had agreed in the meeting to form an inquiry commission.
A five-point agenda of the federal cabinet meeting, presided by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was issued which included discussion of the said letter and approval for setting up of an investigation commission on the allegations levelled in the letter.
The cabinet meeting was held on Zoom as most of the ministers participated online.
Earlier, the cabinet meeting was postponed twice due to the prime minister’s busy schedule.
Former CJ Tassaduq Jillani
After serving for more than 10 years as a Supreme Court judge, including a brief tenure as the CJP, Jillani retired as the top judge on July 10, 2014.
74-year-old Justice (retired) Jillani was born on July 6, 1949. He did his LLB from the University of Punjab and started practicing law at the Multan district courts in 1974.
Jillani became an apex court lawyer in 1983. He was sworn in as the Lahore High Court judge in August 1994. And after ten years was elevated as a SC judge in July 2004. He served as the top court judge till imposition of the state of emergency in November 2007. He then again took oath as the SC judge in 2008. He was appointed as the chief justice of Pakistan in 2013.
In August 2023, the ex-CJP received the 2023 American Bar Association (ABA) International Human Rights Award, in recognition of “his courageous judgments against political impunity in a time of crisis and for defending judicial independence” in Pakistan.
He was also awarded the 2020 J Clifford Wallace Award by the J Reuben Clark Law Society (JRCLS) to honour his “extraordinary career as a judge and a jurist”.
Known to be a “balanced” judge, Justice Jillani delivered key rulings of great significance on domestic and international concerns.
These include his judgments enforcing fundamental rights, gender equality, declaring the right to education a fundamental right, holding that in an age of globalised inter-dependence, dual nationality should be permitted, laying down guidelines for qualitative improvement in legal and medical education, both in the Lahore High Court and the apex court.
However, perhaps, the two rulings that brought him to the foreground were the right of an adult woman to marry a person of her choice in Islam and his landmark ruling on minority rights in 2014, after he took suo moto notice of the matter of the protection of minorities, following a blast in a church in Peshawar that claimed 81 lives.
More to follow…
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