ISLAMABAD: Former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Monday was appointed as the chairman of the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC).
The notification of Siddiqui’s appointment was issued after the approval by the federal cabinet. The former judge has been picked as the chairman for three years.
The development comes months after President Asif Ali Zardari gave his nod to issue a retirement notification to the former IHC judge in light of the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Siddiqui was sacked by former president Arif Alvi as judge of the IHC on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council (SCJ) in October 2018.
However, in March this year, the top court declared the removal of Justice Siddiqui illegal, directing that he may now be considered as a retired judge.
The decision was announced by a five-member bench of the apex court headed by then chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Fazi Isa in a 23-page judgment.
The bench noted that the SJC proceeded against Justice Siddiqui on the “assumption that the truth or falseness of the allegations levelled” by the former judge was “irrelevant”.
The SJC had moved against the judge over a controversial speech before the District Bar Association, Rawalpindi on July 21, 2018.
Justice Siddiqui in his speech had blamed the higher judiciary for the country’s “deplorable” state of affairs.
