Justice (R) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui is widely touted as one of the few judges who refused to take oath under the first PCO in 1999. For his strong reputation of standing against the dictatorship, Nawaz Sharif has allured him in becoming the PML-N’s presidential candidate.

The name did ring a bell so I decided to check some historical background of PML-N’s candidate, that before the 1999 coup.

A judicial crisis similar (in intention) was seen during the second tenure of Nawaz Sharif when the PM was hell-bent on removing the Chief Justice of the time Justice (R) Sajjad Ali Shah. To do the honors, Nawaz divided the judges of the Supreme Court and the war against the CJ was led by our dear candidate Justice (R) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui.

Judges vs. judges [Wikipedia]

In his self-imposed war against the Chief Justice, Nawaz Sharif succeeded in dividing the judges into two camps. The group of judges that sided with the Prime Minister said openly that if Justice Sajjad Ali Shah gives up trying cases against Mian Nawaz Sharif, they will accept him as the Chief Justice. The infamous Article 58(2)(b) a.k.a Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan was restored and suspended within minutes by two separate benches of the apex court assembled against each other. A 3 member bench headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah suspended the operation of the Thirteenth Amendment restoring the powers of the president to dissolve the National Assembly, a verdict which was within minutes set aside by another 10-member bench.The 10-member bench headed by Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui granted stay against the chief justice’s order minutes after it was passed, even without receiving any formal petition or the copy of the order. All efforts to resolve the judicial crisis failed as both the judges’ groups stuck to their stance and issued separate cause lists.The dissident judges, who do not acknowledge Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah as chief justice, issued a fresh cause list for 15 members’ full court session. The full court, headed by Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, took up petitions questioning the validity of chief justice’s appointment.

Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui was reportedly rewarded by Sharif at that time for successfully lobbying against the CJ and getting rid of him. The tilt of Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui towards PML-N is quite obvious, and it is not a surprise when he is nominated as PML-N’s candidate partly in an attempt to show loyalty towards lawyers’ movement. The reality however will remain that Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui was a PML-N loyal judge and is now (un)officially part of the PML-N political party.

So each and everyone who is vying for power has a blotted character in this country. Who’s clean?? Shehzad Roy’s song provides the answer:

Naik woh hai jisko moqa nai mila