Balochistan bar supports IHC judges’ stance

Requests SC to declare all meddling in court affairs a threat to law, independence of the judiciary

ISLAMABAD:

The Balochistan Bar Council (BBC) has filed a constitution petition in the Supreme Court, supporting the stance of the six Islamabad High Court (IHC) who last month accused the country’s spy agencies of meddling in the court’s affairs through coercive tactics.

In the petition filed through Hamid Khan Advocate, the bar council has named the federation and the government of Pakistan as respondents.

It has requested the court to declare all actions mentioned by the IHC judges in their letter dated March 26 as being allegedly taken to state institutions in a bid to interfere in court matters “unconstitutional and a threat to law, access to justice and independence of the judiciary”.

The bar counsel has requested the top court to direct the federal government to deal with those found involved in the illegal act of meddling with court affairs in accordance with the law. “[The court may also] direct the respondents to ensure that in future no such incidents take place,” it said.

On March 25, six of the eight IHC judges wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) chairman, Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, making serious allegations against state agencies for using coercive tactics to influence the bench.

The letter whipped up a storm with the government announcing to form an inquiry commission to probe into the allegations. Later, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the letter after former CJP Tassaduq Hussain Jillani refused to head the proposed commission.

The IHC on Tuesday unanimously acknowledged that intelligence agencies were “interfering” in their judicial functions during a full court meeting presided over by IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq.

The meeting had been convened in view of the Supreme Court's order seeking proposals from high courts as to how to protect their independence from the “interference” of agencies.

Earlier, both the Lahore and Peshawar high courts held full court meetings to discuss the matter.

All eight judges of the IHC agreed that the interference of agencies in judicial functions would not be tolerated. They also decided to chalk out new standard operating procedures (SOPs) on how the judiciary would respond in case the agencies “meddle” in its affairs in the future.

Sources told The Express Tribune that inspection judges were not empowered in the past. Now they have been given the authority to recommend to the IHC CJ what action to take against those who interfered in the functions of the judges of district courts.

They will share their proposals as to how the independence of the judiciary can be secured.