KARACHI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has told the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to tell all civilian and military intelligence agencies, like the Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), that they are not allowed to talk to or call “any judge” or their staff.
In reaction to a complaint from an anti-terrorism court (ATC) judge in Sargodha, Justice Shahid Karim put out five SOPs in a written order that was made public on Saturday.
The judge was accused of harassment after allegedly turning down an intelligence agency official’s request to meet with them.
The judge’s report was seen by former LHC Chief Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan, who filed it through the registrar and started the process. After Chief Justice Khan was named to the Supreme Court, the case was taken over by Justice Karim.
When the case was first brought up, Justice Karim said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was responsible for the acts of intelligence agencies that were under his control.
The judge said in a written order dated June 27 that it was “imperative” to move forward with some issues that “regularly come before this court” and for which “directions are necessary to be issued in order to protect the independence of the judiciary.”
Later, he said, “The Prime Minister’s Office will send strict instructions to all civil or military agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) not to approach or contact any judge or member of their staff in the future.” This included both the civilian and military intelligence services.
The Punjab cops were also given the same instructions.
The order also said, “Also, the Inspector General of Police, Punjab shall give orders to all police officers not to directly contact any judge of the superior judiciary or the subordinate judiciary about the merits of any pending judicial proceedings before these courts.”
The judge made it clear that any steps taken to improve the safety of ATCs in Punjab would only be taken “with the consultation and agreement of the respected judge of that court and not otherwise.” He warned that if the inspector general and police head didn’t follow the order, they would be “held personally accountable” and face contempt charges.
Additionally, Justice Karim told all ATC judges in Punjab to get apps for their phones that record phone calls. He wrote, “They will have to keep track of all such calls that they get and that the judges think were made to try to influence any judicial proceedings that are going on before them.”
On the judges’ order, it also said, “A direction is issued to the judges of ATCs across Punjab to deal with and decide the cases relating to May 9, 2023, quickly and more than anything else.”
It also told the ATC judge in Sargodha and the court staff to help with the investigation. The LHC said, “All investigation proceedings should be video recorded, and the record shall be kept by the police and sent to this court through the registrar.”
The order said that the case would not be heard again until July 8.
The trouble started when the new Sargodha ATC judge, on his first day on the job on June 7, said that he had been told that someone claiming to work for the ISI wanted to meet him in his office.
The judge said that he turned down the request right away.
Since then, he has talked about several times when people tried to bother his family. One of these was messing with the gas meter outside of his government home in Bahawalpur, where he worked before being moved to Sargodha.
Besides that, he said that his family got an extremely high electricity bill the month before, which he thought was fake. He thought that the power company and some people in the spy agency might be working together.
The judicial officer also said that someone had teased his family by giving out personal information about him.
