Tasadduq passes the buck back to the Supreme Court

Former Chief Justice Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jillani on April 1 recused himself from heading the “inquiry committee” that was approved by the Federal Cabinet regarding the Islamabad High Court judges’ letter.

Jillani’s letter was written to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with the subject “One Man Inquiry Commission.”
Last week, on Tuesday, six judges of IHC wrote an explosive letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) alleging blatant interference of intelligence agencies in judicial matters.

The very next day, calls for investigations began to gain ground which led to CJP Qazi Faez Isa holding a full court meeting of the Supreme Court judges.

On Thursday, the PM met with CJP and an inquiry commission was made to probe into the matter. The Federal Cabinet approved and appointed Tassaduq Jillani as the commission head on Saturday.

However, more than 300 lawyers wrote a joint letter to the Supreme Court urging them to take Suo Moto initiative in the judges’ allegations.

The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu notice of the IHC judges’ letter while the former CJP Jillani also refused to head the one-man inquiry commission citing that the letter referenced the top court to intervene so it would be “violative of judicial propriety” for him to inquire into a matter which “may fall within the jurisdiction of a constitutional body which is the SJC or the Supreme Court itself”