IHC disposes of pleas for judge’s recusal with fine

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Babar Sattar imposed on Monday fine of Rs500,000 each on Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), who had sought his recusal from the audio leaks case.

The judge disposed of the pleas of the three federal institutions. Regarding a similar plea filed by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Justice Sattar inquired from the additional attorney general (AAG) as to who approved the filing of that miscellaneous application.

AAG Munawwar Iqbal Duggal informed the judge that the approval was given by IB Director General Tariq Mehmood. On that the judge summoned the IB DG in his personal capacity on the next date of hearing of the case.

Read IHC orders forensics of leaked audio

Justice Babar Sattar heard the petitions of Bushra Bibi, wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan, against summoning of the FIA and Najamus Saqib, son of former chief justice Saqib Nisar, by a parliamentary committee on the issue of audio leaks.

Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan informed the court that FIA, IB and PTA had filed different applications. The judge observed that it would listen to these important government institutions first.

AAG Dogal said that the FIA had objection that six IHC judges, including Justice Babar Sattar himself, had written a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) about the interference of intelligence agencies in the judiciary. Therefore, Justice Babar Sattar should not hear the case.

However, the judge told the AAG that the six judges had said that they supported the investigation into the allegations of former Justice Shaukat Siddiqui against the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He then asked what the FIA had got to do with the ISI.

The court dismissed the petitions of FIA, Pemra and PTA with a fine of Rs500,000 each. Former Islamabad advocate general Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon sought the court’s permission to speak, saying that he was not associated with the case but wanted to say something.

He then requested the court that fines should be paid from the pockets of those responsible for filing such “frivolous” applications. He stressed that the amount of the fine should not be paid from the national exchequer.

Justice Babar Sattar, while addressing AAG Duggal, remarked that the purpose of filing such petitions was to embarrass the judicial proceedings, adding that if his (the AAG’s) argument was accepted then no case should be heard against the government.

Senior lawyer Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said in arguments he was glad to see that now the judges were saying “enough is enough”. He added that he believed in the supremacy of parliament and the super supremacy of the Constitution.

At one point, the judge stopped Ahsan from referring to the case in the Supreme Court against the trial of civilians in military courts. Ahsan said that the audios of top politicians including Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Asif Zardari had been coming out, adding that the FIA should take action on those.
Justice Babar Sattar said that according to the Benazir Bhutto case, spying on anyone was illegal. The court observed that the next date of hearing of the case would be mentioned in its written order of the proceedings.