IHC judges’ letter: PM Shehbaz Sharif to meet CJP Qazi Faez Isa today
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be meeting Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa today to discuss the allegations levelled by Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges accusing the country’s spy agencies of interfering in judicial matters.
Sources within the government have said that the prime minister would be accompanied by the attorney general and the law minister during his visit to the Supreme Court slated for 2pm.
However, the apex court’s sources have denied having any knowledge of the purported meeting.
The development comes after 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 — wrote to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to convene a judicial convention over the matter of the alleged interference of members of the executive, including operatives of intelligence agencies, in judicial affairs.
The letter further underscored that the code of conduct for judges prescribed by SJC provides no guidance on how they “must react to and or report incidents that are tantamount to intimidation and interfere with judicial independence”.
A day earlier, a full court meeting of the apex court was held in the federal capital to deliberate on the judges’ letter that sought guidance from the 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”.
The two-hour huddle, convened by CJP Isa, took place after bar associations of Sindh, Lahore, Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as senior lawyers demanded a probe into the letter which arguably might have serious consequences for the country’s judiciary.
Separately, a plea has also been filed in the apex court seeking an open court investigation of the IHC judges’ letter.
The constitutional petition, submitted by Mian Dawood Advocate, calls for the constitution of an empowered commission to investigate the “premediated” letter.