Senior military officials brief SC judges on security

Spymasters meet members of apex court bench hearing poll delay case

ISLAMABAD:

Top officials of the country’s two premier spy agencies -- the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence (MI) -- on Monday met with Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and other two apex court judges who are hearing a case related to the election in Punjab on May 14.

Sources revealed to The Express Tribune that the meeting between the judges and the ISI and MI chiefs continues for over three hours in the CJP’s chamber. They said the intelligence official gave a briefing to the judges on the security issues confronting the country.

A three-judge bench -- led by the chief justice and comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan -- on April 4 declared as “unconstitutional” the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision to postpone the election for the Punjab Assembly and ordered it to hold polls in the province on May 14.

On March 22, the ECP delayed the provincial assembly election in the politically-crucial Punjab province by more than five months, citing a deteriorating security situation in the cash-starved country.

The same bench on April 14 ordered the State Bank of Pakistan to release Rs21 billion to the ECP for holding elections in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and send an “appropriate communication” to this effect to the finance ministry by Monday (April 17).

Also read: Govt circumvents SC order on poll funds

At an earlier hearing, the defence secretary had requested the bench to get an in-camera briefing on security issues. But the bench had asked him to first submit a classified report.

A lawyer said April 17 was the last date to inform the ECP about a security plan as per direction of the apex court. “It seems that these officials directly shared with the judges the reasons why army troops could not be made available for security duty on May 14.

It is not clear whether the Supreme Court expressed satisfaction with the briefing. However, the briefing will have far-reaching implications if the judges get convinced that the security situation in the country does not allow the deployment of troops to ensure security during the poll in Punjab.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has convened a meeting of his coalition partners today [Tuesday] to discuss the current political situation. The premier will take his allies into confidence about the cases being heard by the Supreme Court with regard to polls and the CJPs powers.