By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday summoned a former spy chief and three others over allegations that they influenced the removal of a high court judge who had accused the intelligence agency of meddling in judicial affairs.
The court issued notices to former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director-general Faiz Hamid, two retired army officers and Anwar Khan Kasi, former chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, asking them to appear before it in January, Hamid Khan, the lawyer for the sacked judge, told reporters.
The notices were issued by a five-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who himself had faced allegations of misconduct and tax evasion by the government of former prime minister Imran Khan, widely seen as an attempt to silence his criticism of the military’s role in politics.
The bench was hearing an appeal filed by Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, a former judge of the Islamabad High Court, who was sacked in 2018 by the Supreme Judicial Council, a body that oversees the conduct of judges, for a speech he delivered at a lawyers’ forum in which he alleged that the military was manipulating the judiciary and also claimed that the ISI was pressuring judges to influence their verdicts.
Siddiqui had named seven people in his amended plea, including former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and Hamid, as being involved in his removal.
However, the court remarked that three of them had no direct connection with the case and issued notices only to four: Hamid, two retired brigadiers who allegedly visited Siddiqui at his residence, and a former chief justice of the Islamabad High Court who allegedly acted on Hamid’s instructions.
Siddiqui’s counsel, Hamid Khan, affirmed the truth of his allegations and said that the former ISI chief had tried to influence the outcome of several cases, including those related to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted and jailed on corruption charges in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The chief justice asked Khan to identify the person who runs the army and questioned why the direct beneficiary of Siddiqui’s removal was not included in the plea. He also questioned the relevance of former army chief, Qamar Javed Bajwa to the case.
The five-member bench grilled lawyer Khan over the veracity and logic of his allegations, warning him of the serious consequences of making false accusations against the military.
They also cautioned that Siddiqui’s serious allegations could have significant consequences and suggested setting aside Justice isa’s verdict on the 2017 Faizabad sit-in, a religious protest that paralyzed the capital for weeks and was allegedly sponsored by the ISI, according to Siddiqui’s speech.
The court adjourned the hearing until an unspecified date in January.
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