ISLAMABAD: In an unprecedented move, more than 300 members of the legal fraternity from across the country have joined hands, putting their weight behind the six judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and calling upon the Supreme Court to take cognisance of the alleged meddling into judiciary’s affairs by the state’s intelligence agencies under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, and rejecting the related inquiry panel formed by the federal government.
In a public statement issued Sunday, the lawyers called the Pakistan Bar Council, as well as, all bar associations to call a convention of lawyers across Pakistan on an urgent basis to decide on a collective course of action to strengthen the independence of judiciary.
Saqib Jillani, the son of former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the head of the federal government’s newly-formed panel tasked to probe the alleged interference of intelligence agencies in judicial affairs, is also one of over 300 signatories of the public statement that includes several prominent lawyers.
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“Any inquiry into the matter undertaken under the purview of the federal government violates the very principles that the inquiry seeks to protect and uphold. We note that any such inquiry commission and its proceedings would be entirely wanting in credibility,” read the public statement.
“We endorse the resolutions passed by the Islamabad High Court Bar Association, the Islamabad Bar Association, the Sindh High Court Bar Association, the Pakistan Bar Council, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council and the Balochistan Bar Council to the extent that they resolve to uphold the principle of independence of judiciary, express solidarity with the six judges of the Islamabad High Court, commend their courageous action and demand appropriate action to uphold such principles.”
They unequivocally condemned the events narrated in the IHC letter considering that this narration has been endorsed by six judges of a constitutional court, the same cannot be disregarded. The said narration clearly discloses criminal intimidation, torture, and illegal surveillance of the judges and their family members by operatives of intelligence agencies who report to the executive, the statement noted.
They called upon the apex court to take cognizance of the matter in its jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution “as this issue eminently relates to public interest and to the enforcement of fundamental rights.”
The lawyers also called upon the SC to constitute a bench comprising of all available judges to hear the matter and for the proceedings to be telecast live for public consumption.
The lawyers requested the Supreme Judicial Council, to lay down, in accordance with Article 209(8) of the Constitution, the guidelines and the SC, in coordination with all respective high courts, set up transparent institutional mechanisms “so that any attempt at undermining the independence of judiciary may be reported and dealt with effectively and transparently, so that no one may cast any aspersions on the independence of the judiciary in the future.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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