ISLAMABAD – A Supreme Court judge on Wednesday lashed out at the topintelligence agency of the country for its arbitrariness, after it failedto produce a fresh report on last year’s Faizabad sit-in.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa, member of a two-judge bench headed by Justice MushirAlam, asked if Pakistan had turned into a security state.

The court ordered the defence secretary and the Attorney General forPakistan (AGP) to appear on the next hearing along with a comprehensivereport –revealing the financial affairs of the protest parties and theirleaders.

The same day, hearing a petition demanding to make the Faizabad sit-ininquiry report public, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad HighCourt strongly criticised the military, questioning its involvement incommercial activities.

In first week of November 2017, the life of the people of the twin citiesof Islamabad and Rawalpindi was disrupted for weeks by a protest of theTehreek-e-Labbaik Ya Rasullah (TLYR) and some other religious groups.

The leaders of the sit-in, especially Khadim Hussain Rizvi, resorted torepeatedly abusing the state functionaries for their alleged inaction overthe issue of amendment to the clauses relating to finality of prophethood,in the oath of candidates for the assemblies.

After all the fuss and unruliness, the government and protesters reached anarmy-brokered agreement in which the former conceded to the latter’sdemands. Army even gave cash handouts to returning protesters.