The directions were given by the Lahore High Court.
Lahore:
A top Pakistani court on Saturday directed the Prime Minister’s Office to issue directives to the country’s powerful intelligence agencies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), asking them not to approach any judge or member of their staff to obtain favorable rulings.
The intelligence services, particularly ISI, the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), have been accused by several judges of pressuring them in various ways to obtain the desired verdicts, especially in the cases of the former Prime Minister and founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan, his party leaders and supporters.
Almost all – six of the eight judges of the Islamabad High Court – and a few judges of the 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 open interference of the intelligence services in legal matters.
Some of them had complained that their relatives had been arrested by intelligence services 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 in Sargodha district of Punjab against harassment by ISI personnel.
“The Prime Minister is responsible and accountable for the actions of the intelligence services under his command. The Prime Minister’s Office will issue instructions to all civilian and military agencies, including the ISI and the IB, regarding strict directions not to approach or contact any judge for any purpose in the future, whether or not belongs to the superior judiciary or the subordinate judiciary, or to any member of their staff,” the judge said in his written order. Similar directions have also been issued to the Punjab Police.
The court said the inspector general and police chief would be held personally responsible and contempt proceedings would be initiated if the order was not carried out.
The LHC also directed ATC judges across Punjab to “download call recording applications on their mobile phones so that all such calls (from intelligence agencies) can be recorded to influence judicial proceedings.” The Sargodha ATC judge was supposed to hear the cases of some PTI leaders, including Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub, when he was told that a senior ISI officer wanted to meet him in his chamber. Because the judge refused, several incidents of intimidation targeting his family took place in the following days.
PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan said that as part of a malicious and well-thought-out plot, the mandate thief government and its handlers are forcing the judiciary to take decisions of their choosing.
“The trend of taking judges and their family members hostage and occupying the courts is being used as a new tactic to prevent the courts from delivering justice as such brazen interference in judicial affairs has already been described by six judges of the Islamabad High Court in their report. letter,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
