The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday suspended an order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) barring Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri from carrying out judicial duties in a case pertaining to his law degree allegedly being fake.
According to the court order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the bench ruled that the “operation of the impugned order is suspended”.
The court also issued notices to the respondents in the case, as well as the attorney general of Pakistan, and advocate general Islamabad as the matter relates to the interpretation of provisions of the Constitution“. The hearing was adjourned till tomorrow.
A complaint pertaining to Justice Jahangiri’s allegedly fake degree was submitted to the Supreme Judicial Council (SKC) last year in July, while a petition challenging his appointment was filed in the IHC earlier this year. The matter centres on a letter that began circulating last year on social media, purportedly from the University of Karachi’s controller of examinations, regarding the judge’s law degree.
On September 16, the IHC had restrained Justice Jahangiri from exercising his judicial powers as a two-judge bench issued the interim order while hearing a writ petition filed under Article 199 of the Constitution. Justice Jahangiri then challenged the decision in the SC, pleading for the restraining order to be set aside and suspended during the pendency of the petition, and for the division bench to be directed to hold back from proceeding further.
Today, a five-member constitutional bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, and including Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan took up Justice Jahangiri’s petition.
Also present at today’s hearing were Justice Jahangiri himself, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz.
Also present at the hearing was the Islamabad Council member Aleem Abbasi, who requested the bench to make him, the council and the District Bar Association respondents in the case.
To this, Justice Mandokhel asked if they were a respondent in the IHC case as well, stating that the main petitioner was Justice Jahangiri.
Justice Aminuddin Khan, responding to this, said that the “SC will follow its own standard procedure and fix the application once it has been numbered.”
For his part, Justice Jahangiri’s lawyer, Munir A. Malik, told the court that this was the first instance that “a two-member judge has prevented a judge of its own high court from judicial work”. He argued that order issued against Justice Jahangiri was in violation of the law while the requirements of justice were also not met.
He noted that a writ petition was filed against Justice Jahangiri on July 10, 2024. “More than a year has passed yet the objections raised by the registrar’s office are still pending,” he said.
He told the court that after the writ petition against Justice Jahangiri was filed, there were several incidents of note, including the “transfer of three judges to IHC, which five IHC judges contested, but it was later declared valid”.
He said that the judge who issued the Sept 16 order against his client was the one against whose transfer the plea had been filed in the SC.
He reiterated that the objections raised on the plea filed against Justice Jahangiri still remained and the other parties in the case had not yet been heard. “Sixteen months have passed [since the plea was filed] and the objections still remain,” he said.
He also highlighted a recent order issued by the SC’s Justice Mandokhail, which stated that judges cannot initiate contempt proceedings against their peers and established that only the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has the constitutional authority to probe misconduct allegations against the judges of both the apex and high courts.
Meanwhile, Justice Hassan wondered how the plea against Justice Jahangiri was fixed for hearing when objections were raised by the registrar’s office. He told the lawyers of both sides to prepare arguments in this regard.
The hearing was subsequently adjourned for tomorrow.
Fake degree controversy
The controversy began with a letter that was circulated on social media last year, purportedly from the University of Karachi’s examinations, regarding the validity of Justice Jahangiri’s law degree, leading to the subsequent filing of a reference with the SJC.
The letter was reportedly a response from KU to an application seeking information under the Sindh Transparency Right to Information Act, 2016.
It stated that candidate Tariq Mehmood obtained his LLB degree in 1991 under enrolment number 5968. However, Imtiaz Ahmed enrolled in 1987 under the same enrolment number, while the transcript for LLB Part I was issued under the name Tariq Jahangiri.
Moreover, Tariq Mehmood enrolled for LLB Part I under enrolment number 7124. The letter did not declare the degree bogus but termed it invalid, explaining that the university issues one enrolment number for the entire degree programme, making it impossible for a student to have two enrolment numbers for one programme.
On July 10, 2024, IHC ruled that the “scurrilous campaign” aimed to malign the judge amounted to an attempt to bring the “Court into hatred, ridicule and disrespect and, prima facie, qualifies as contempt of Court.”
As the degree accusations came to light, lawyer Mian Daud filed a writ petition, requesting the court to stop Justice Jahangiri from exercising judicial powers till the verification of his LLB degree. The then-IHC CJ Aamer Farooq heard the petition filed by the lawyer.
At the time, the SC registrar’s office also had raised objections to the petition on grounds that Daud was not an aggrieved person and the matter was already pending before the SJC.
On September 1, 2024, the syndicate of KU cancelled Justice Jahangiri’s degree and enrollment, on the recommendation of its Unfair Means (UFM) Committee, varsity officials said.
The decision came a few hours after the detention of academic and syndicate member Riaz Ahmed, who was picked up by police in what appeared to be an attempt to stop him from attending the key meeting. He was released in the evening only after the syndicate decided to cancel the degree.
Then, on Sept 5 2024, the Sindh High Court (SHC) suspended KU’s decision to revoke the law degree of Justice Jahangiri, after a petition against KU’s cancellation was filed. The court found that the university’s syndicate had taken the action in Justice Jahangiri’s absence, depriving him of the opportunity to defend himself.
To this, KU responded that the unfair means committee and the syndicate were of the opinion that there was enough evidence against the judge, and deemed it appropriate not to hear him in person.
On Sept 16, the IHC took up the matter and a two-member bench led by IHC CJ Dogar and comprising Justice Mohammad Azam Khan, barred Justice Jahangiri from carrying out judicial work until the SJC decision on the matter of his allegedly fake degree, which Justice Jahangiri appealed against in the SC.
Separately, on Sept 25, a two-judge SHC bench declined to entertain the plea of Justice Jahangiri to become a party in proceedings on petitions, challenging the cancellation of his law degree.