- Council rejects proposal to make public names of judges against whom complaints had been disposed
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), convened with Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Yahya Afridi in the chair on Saturday, discussed 24 complaints against judges under Article 209 of the constitution, rejecting 19 of them while putting five others on hold for further discussion, according to a press release.
The meeting discussed complaints against judges and the amendments to the council rules.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Yahya Afridi chaired the meeting attended by senior puisine judge Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah (through video link), Mr Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Aalia Neelum, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, and Mr Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, Chief Justice Sindh High Court.
As per the declaration issued at the end of the meeting, the participants approved the draft of the SJC Service Rules, 2025.
It was decided that more brainstorming would be done on making amendments to the code of conduct for the judges and the mode of inquiry to be adopted.
The participants rejected the proposal to make the names of judges against whom complaints had been disposed of public.
Following is the text of the press release issued after the SJC meeting: “A meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council was held under the chairmanship of Mr Justice Yahya Afridi, Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, at the Supreme Court in Islamabad today (12.07.2025) at 11:00 AM.”
“The council discussed all the agenda items one by one. The proposed draft of Supreme Judicial Council Secretariat Service Rules, 2025 was approved by the council, while it was resolved that the procedure of inquiry and amendments in the Code of Conduct needed to be examined from a legal and drafting point of view; therefore, these required further deliberation.”
“The Council also examined 24 complaints under Article 209 of the Constitution filed by different individuals. 19 complaints were unanimously decided to be filed, while 5 others were deferred for the time being.”
Earlier this week, CJP Yahya Afridi had convened the SJC meeting to consider around two dozen pending complaints against superior court judges and a set of recommendations to streamline the process of handling complaints and to ensure transparency while probing allegations of misconduct against judges.
The SJC had appointed Justice Akhtar as head of a committee to propose amendments to the code of conduct.
In February, the SJC examined as many as 46 complaints against constitutional office-holders, disposed of 40 of them, sought comments on five complaints and asked for further information in one case.
