ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa Wednesday observed that all the state institutions, including the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), were not independent.
He passed these remarks as a three-member Supreme Court bench resumed hearing a set of review petitions against the Febraury 6, 2019 judgement in the Islamabad’s Faizabad dharna case. The panel also included Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Athar Minallah.
Authored by Justice Isa years before he took oath as the top judge of the country, the searing judgement had instructed the defence ministry and the tri-services chiefs to penalise personnel under their command who were found to have violated their oath.
It had also directed the federal government to monitor those advocating hate, extremism and terrorism and prosecute them in accordance with the law. The verdict also contained adverse observations against several government departments for causing inconvenience to the public as the 20-day sit-in paralysed life in the twin cities.
A day earlier, a former PEMRA chairman alleged in a concise statement that he received calls from the then ISI Director General Major General Faiz Hamid and his subordinates, who asked him to take action against senior journalist Najam Sethi and completely black out former ambassador Husain Haqqani from TV channels, though these demands were never heeded.
At the outset of the hearing, CJP Isa noted that the former PEMRA chairman had levelled “serious allegations” on the defence ministry and inquired if the government still wanted to withdraw its review petition.
“If Absar Alam’s allegations are true, then this matter is linked to you,” CJP told the AGP.
For his part, AGP Awan said a fact-finding committee had been constituted on October 19 which would submit the findings to the defence ministry. The report then will be presented in the SC, he added.
However, the chief justice observed that the exercise was an “eyewash” and the “real thing” was missing from it, raising questions on the terms of reference of the committee as synonymous to dust in the eyes.
At one point, Justice Athar Minallah posed a question whether what was happening in the country today was as per the Constitution. To this, CJP Isa said the government was not qualified to handle the matter. A person is imported from abroad and paralyses the entire country, the top judge remarked and added the court wants to know who was the mastermind of the Faizabad dharna. He observed that given the broadened scope of the TORs, everyone will be acquitted.
He further observed that the TORS of the fact-finding committee did not mention the exact incident being probed. CJP Isa further inquired if the committee was formed under the Inquiry Commission Act? Justice Isa said that if this was not so, then the notification of the commission was a mere piece of paper and the committee too is illegal.
The chief justice pointed out that a committee formed under the Inquiry Commission Act only has powers and all institutions are bound to cooperate with it. “No one will appear before your committee,” the CJP told the AGP. At that point, Awan assured the court that the government would work on the matter. The CJP further stressed that the inquiry should also reveal why everyone appealed the 2019 verdict.
