Islamabad High Court grills ISI yet again
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ISLAMABAD: Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court has grilled the Inter Services Intelligence on Wednesday.
He remarked that there are no ‘prestigious institutions’ in the country as all are consisted of people and hence error prone.
The remarks were made during hearing of a case involving Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s premier intelligence agency, which has requested the court to expunge several paragraphs from an order of IHC’s Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui.
Justice Siddiqui, in the order passed on July 18, had asked the army chief and the top spymaster to stop meddling in affairs of other departments besides expressing concerns over manipulation of judicial proceedings.
Assistant Attorney General Khawaja Muhammad Imtiaz filed the appeal and stated that the single-member bench, while hearing a habeas corpus petition, unnecessarily dragged the premier intelligence agency in the controversy.
When the division bench comprising Justice Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb initiated the hearing earlier today, Imitiaz said that Justice Siddiqui passed several ‘unwarranted remarks’ against ‘prestigious institutions’ like army, intelligence agencies and judiciary at a time when the petition had already become ‘infructuous’.
“There are no prestigious institutions. All institutions are mere institutions. They are made of people and we should see if there is any drawback,” Justice Farooq responded.
Subsequently, the court issued notices to Islamabad’s Inspector General of Police, Director General of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), SHO Aabpara and one Iftikhar Ahmed Raja. In addition, the court ordered Islamabad’s Advocate General to appear on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the court did not suspend Justice Siddiqui’s order when Imitiaz requested on grounds that Justice Siddiqui has ordered to place his order before the army chief and DG ISI. The bench initially adjourned the matter till Monday but allowed counsel’s request to fix it on Thursday when he assured that notices will be served to the respondents today.
