A top Pakistan court on Saturday directed the Prime Minister’s Office to issue instructions to the country’s powerful intelligence agencies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), asking them not to approach any judge or member of his staff to obtain favourable verdicts.
Intelligence agencies, particularly the ISI, Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), have been accused by several judges of pressuring them through various means to obtain desired verdicts, especially in the cases of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan, his party leaders and supporters.
Almost all – six out of eight judges of the Islamabad High Court – and some judges of anti-terrorism courts in Punjab have written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) respectively, drawing their attention to the blatant interference of intelligence agencies in judicial matters.
Some of them had complained that their family members were picked up by the intelligence agencies to put pressure on them (judges).
Lahore High Court Judge Shahid Karim on Saturday issued written directions to the Prime Minister’s Office on the complaint of an ATC judge of Punjab’s Sargodha district against harassment by ISI personnel.
“The prime minister is responsible and accountable for the actions of intelligence agencies as they fall under him. Strict instructions will be issued by the Prime Minister’s Office to all civil or military agencies, including ISI and IB, not to approach any judge, whether of the higher judiciary or subordinate judiciary or any member of their staff, for any purpose in future,” the judge said in his written order. Similar directions have been issued for the Punjab police.
The court said that in case of non-implementation of the order, the Inspector General and the Police Chief would be held personally responsible and contempt proceedings would be initiated.
The LHC directed ATC judges across Punjab to “download a call-recording application on their mobile phones to keep a record of all such calls (from intelligence agencies) made to influence judicial proceedings.” The Sargodha ATC judge was to hear the cases of some PTI leaders, including opposition leader in the National Assembly Umar Ayub, when he was informed that a senior ISI officer wanted to meet him in his chamber. After the judge refused, several incidents of harassment targeting his family took place over the next few days.
PTI spokesperson Rauf Hassan said that under a malicious and well-planned conspiracy, the mandate-stealing government and its handlers were forcing the judiciary to take decisions of their choice.
He said, “The trend of taking judges and their family members hostage and occupying the courts is being used as a new strategy to prevent the courts from delivering justice, as such blatant interference in judicial matters has already been described by six judges of the Islamabad High Court in their letter.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)