The Islamabad High Court’s six judges wrote a letter accusing the nation’s intelligence services of interfering in judicial matters. The Supreme Court has now restarted the case’s suo motu hearing.
Judges of the high courts will present their ideas for consideration to a six-member bigger bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa during the showdown.
The high court judges have accused the nation’s intelligence agencies of interfering in judicial matters. Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Anwar is expected to respond to these accusations and offer recommendations.
The supreme court received proposals from judges of the Islamabad High Court and provincial high courts during the previous session.
These suggestions must be made public, per the court’s order.
A secret agency may use the AGP to file a response, the court said, if it wished to reply.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and other parties were also requested by the court to provide their responses with recommendations on the matter by May 7.
Justices Mansoor Ali Shah, Musarrat Hilali, Athar Minallah, Jamal Mandokhail, and Naeem Akhtar Afnan make up the six-judge panel that is presiding over the suo motu proceedings. Chief Justice Isa is not one of them.
Offers for IHC Submits
After six high court judges complained of suspected intelligence agency meddling in their cases, the Islamabad High Court convened a full court conference on April 27 and sent its recommendations to the Supreme Court.
Every single one of the IHC judges suggested that all high court, session, and civil court judges report to their senior judges in the event of any interference.
Under the guidelines, judges will be held accountable for wrongdoing if they do not report interference within seven days.
According to the guidelines, a session judge will receive reports from civil judges about incidents of interference, and the high court inspection judge will subsequently be notified. After then, the chief justice of the high court would be consulted by the inspection judge.
Whether to consider the subject administratively or judicially should be decided ultimately by the high court administrative committee, according to the judges’ proposal.
The administrative committee may also, given the gravity of the matter, submit the case to the entire court, and in the end, the high court may use its own judgment to address contempt of court in compliance with institutional agreements, as indicated in the recommendations.
JUDGES’ E-MAIL
A letter citing “interference of intelligence agencies in judicial matters” was sent to the Supreme Judicial Council on March 25 by six justices of the Islamabad High Court.
Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz were among these judges.
A full court hearing on the subject was alluded to by the Supreme Court in April when it took suo motu notice. Prior to it, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the former chief judge, refused to start any proceedings for the one-man inquiry commission that the federal government had established.
CJP Isa then asked all of the IHC justices for their opinions on whether the whole court should be called to discuss this important matter.
The proposals were drafted by the IHC judges jointly, following a conference called by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq last week.
