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- April 18, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
The Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday to look into the claims made by six IHC judges that the nation’s intelligence services had interfered in their judicial matters. Out of the eight judges in the IHC, six of them addressed a shocking letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on March 25. The letter included attempts to intimidate judges by kidnapping and torturing their families and by secretly spying on them at home. Judges Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Arbab Muhammad Tahir, and Saman Rafat Imtiaz all signed the letter.
A full court meeting of the Supreme Court’s judges was called by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa following appeals from various quarters for an investigation into the matter. Following the cabinet’s consent, CJP Isa and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decided to establish a commission to look into the allegations of meddling in judicial matters after a meeting on March 28. The highest court took a suo motu notice of the matter after former CJP Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, who had been appointed to oversee the committee, later withdrew his involvement. In a petition that was submitted today and that Dawn.com has a copy of, the IHCBA demanded that the letter be looked into.
In a petition that was submitted today and demanded that the letter be looked into. The top court should “pass appropriate orders to affix liability for those who undermined the independence of the judiciary by resorting to all manner of interference in the judicial work of the judges concerned,” the recommendation stated after such an investigation is concluded. Along with defining any issues from the IHC letter that were under the SJC’s exclusive purview, the petition asked the top court to “if deemed appropriate, make recommendations for due consideration of such matters by the SJC.”
The organization requested that the court address the matters in the letter and provide guidance on how to go forward to completely eradicate the “possibility of vertical interference and collateral interference.” To “serve the ends of justice,” it was further stated that the petition be joined to the suo motu case. Regarding the IHC judges’ letter, the IHCBA declared that it was “the primary stakeholder” and reaffirmed its dedication to the “exemplary interface between the bar and the bench with the underlying purpose of sustaining efficient and effective administration of justice”.
The association emphasized that there was “no room for any kind of interference (overt or covert) in the discharge of judicial functions by any court of law by any external element, including but not limited to the state’s executive branch and/or by any of its instrumentalities and/or agencies.” “It is not acceptable to intimidate or harass a judge of a high court, a judge of a court beneath it, or a judge performing quasi-judicial duties in an official tribunal. It is a flagrant attack on the judiciary’s independence and an insult to constitutionalism.