Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday resigned from his position owing to ongoing "circumstances".
He sent his resignation letter to President Dr Arif Alvi.
"In the circumstances which are a matter of public knowledge and to some extent public record, it is no longer possible for me to continue to serve as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan," Justice Naqvi wrote.
He added that "considerations of due process also compel" him to leave his position.
"I, therefore, effective today, resign as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan," Justice Naqvi stated.
In the letter, Justice Naqvi noted that it was an honour to have been appointed first to the Lahore High Court (LHC) and then to the top court in the country.
Justice Naqvi had been facing no less than ten complaints in the Supreme Judicial Council and had been twice issued show cause notices over them.
The resignation, however, came a day after the top court rejected a petition filed by Justice Naqvi seeking to halt the proceedings of the Supreme Judicial Council against him.
He had received a shot in the arm in the form of a letter written by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who stated the reasons for his disagreement with the Supreme Judicial Council sending show cause notices to Justice Naqvi.
In his letter, Justice Ahsan noted that the proceedings against Justice Naqvi were being conducted in undue haste while the allegations levelled against the judge of the Supreme Court were 'utterly without merit or substance', and where everything was based on hearsay or worse.
Lawyer who filed complaint against Justice Naqvi to challenge resignation
Advocate Mian Dawood, who had filed some of the complaints against Justice Naqvi, termed the resignation as an admission of the judge's guilt, adding that they would challenge the resignation so that the case would be taken to its logical end.
"This is big news for the nation and for the lawyers of the country," Dawood said in a video statement, adding, "This is the first time in Pakistan's history that a judge of the Supreme Court has been held accountable."
"The Supreme Judicial Council proceeded against Justice Naqvi over incontrovertible evidence which we provided. All attempts were made by some like-minded judges of Justice Naqvi to make my complaints and evidence against the judge controversial, but because the evidence was watertight and Justice Naqvi had no defence against them," he said.
"This resignation is an admission of his guilt that he was one of the most corrupt judges of Pakistan and he misused his powers to accrue illegitimate wealth," Advocate Dawood said.
He said that they will not stop here. "We will challenge Justice Naqvi's resignation because we believe that the pensions and retirement perks of such corrupt judges should be stopped when they go home, and NAB should prosecute them and recover looted wealth from them."