The federal cabinet on Monday appointed former senior judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui as the chairman of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC).
The notification of Siddiqui’s appointment as chairman for the next three years was issued after approval by the cabinet.
The development comes months after President Asif Ali Zardari approved the issuance of a retirement notification to the former IHC judge in light of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Siddiqui was removed as an IHC judge by former President Arif Alvi on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council (SCJ) in October 2018.
However, in March this year, the Supreme Court declared Justice Siddiqui’s removal illegal and directed that he can now be treated as a retired judge.
This decision was delivered in a 23-page judgment by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by the then Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa.
The bench noted that the SJC proceeded against Justice Siddiqui on the assumption that the truth or falsity of the allegations leveled by the former judge was “irrelevant”.
Dismissal of Justice Siddiqui
The SJC had filed a petition against the judge on July 21, 2018, over a controversial speech before the District Bar Association Rawalpindi.
In his speech, Justice Siddiqui blamed the high judiciary for the country’s “sad” state.
The judge also alleged that the then Major General Faiz Hamid and his subordinates wanted to decide the cases related to the Faizabad sit-in, Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam “in a special manner”.
The Army had also reacted to the speech and requested the Supreme Court to “initiate a proper process to ascertain the truth of the allegations and take action accordingly”.
In October 2018, then President Alvi removed Siddiqui as an IHC judge in light of a recommendation of the SJC.
The recommendation states: “Mr. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, Judge, Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, had shown behavior objectionable to a High Court Judge and thus committed misconduct and therefore, Article 209 (6) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.
Justice Siddiqui challenged the SJC decision in the Supreme Court in October of the same year.