According to reliable sources, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) “unanimously decided” on Tuesday at its full court meeting to provide a “institutional response” to any interference in the court’s operations. This is a significant development.
Chief Justice Aamer Farooq chaired the IHC full court meeting today to finalize suggestions pertaining to a case involving the purported meddling in judicial affairs by espionage personnel before they were submitted to the Supreme Court.
In a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) last month, six judges of the IHC—Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz—asked for advice on “interference” of the intelligence agencies in the courts’ affairs.
“We are writing to seek guidance from the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with regard to the duty of a judge to report and respond to actions on [the] part of members of the executive, including operatives of intelligence agencies, that seek to interfere with [the] discharge of his/her official functions and qualify as intimidation, as well as the duty to report any such actions that come to his/her attention in relation to colleagues and/or members of the courts that the high court supervises,” read the latter.
