President Dr Arif Alvi has accepted the resignation of the Supreme Court Judge Justice IJazul Ahsan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The president on Friday approved the Justice Ahsan’s resignation on the advice of the prime minister in exercise of the power under Article 179 of the Constitution.

After president's approval, the federal law ministry has notified the resignation of Justice Ahsan effective from January 11,2023.

A day earlier, President Alvi had accepted the resignation of another Supreme Court judge Justice Sayyed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi.

Apex court’s senior-most judge Justice Ijazul Ahsan had forwarded his resignation to the president on Thursday, a day after Justice Mazahar Naqvi did the same.

Justice Ahsan was slated to be the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) after CJP Qazi Faez Isa.

According to the resignation addressed to the president, Justice Ahsan said: “I no longer wish to continue as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

Without giving any reason, he said he resigned as per Article 206(1) of the Constitution with immediate effect.

President Dr Arif Alvi earlier Thursday had accepted Justice Naqvi’s resignation who was facing complaints of misconduct. Naqvi was facing a Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) inquiry over allegations of misconduct, a show-cause notice for which was issued in October last year. On Tuesday, the apex court had rejected his request to stay the proceedings.

Justice Ahsan — part of the five-member SJC — had refused to join other members of the council on November 22, 2023, in the issuance of a fresh show-cause notice to Justice Naqvi.

In his letter to the SJC members on Tuesday, Justice Ahsan regretted the hasty proceedings and that debate and discussion were non-existent and were not permitted during the ongoing council proceedings. “Thus Nov 22, 2023 proceedings when the second show-cause notice was issued against Justice Naqvi were completely devoid of any discussion or deliberation whatsoever,” he had said.

This manner of proceedings has cast an unwelcome doubt over the whole process, therefore he disagreed with the process followed and the manner in which the proceedings were being conducted, Justice Ahsan explained.

Referring to the allegations in the complaint against the judge, the letter regretted these were utterly without merit or substance, both in law and even on a prima facie appraisal of the facts.

The letter regretted that a reasoned and deliberative approach ought to have been adopted which would have prevented the council from falling into the error that was committed with the issuance of the show-cause notice.

Justice Ahsan was part of the five-member bench that delivered the verdict in the high-profile Panamagate case in 2017, which led to the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif, the then-prime minister. He was also appointed as the monitoring judge to supervise and monitor the implementation of the Panamagate case verdict.

Justice Ahsan assumed the position of chief justice of the Lahore High Court on November 6, 2015. A year later, on June 28, 2016, he was elevated to the position of judge in the Supreme Court.

Last month, a former senior official of the defen­­ce ministry filed a complaint in the SJC aga­inst Justices Ahsan and Munib Akhtar over an alleged breach of the code of conduct.

Reporter Awais Kiyani