ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court issued show-cause notices to lawmakers Faisal Vawda and Mustafa Kamal, seeking responses from them on their recent rhetoric against the judiciary.
The development came as a three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and including Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan — presided over the proceedings of a suo motu notice taken a day ago against independent Senator Vawda.
On Wednesday, two senators — Vawda and PML-N’s Talal Chaudhry — had held separate pressers, questioning the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges’ claim that intelligence agencies had interfered in the judicial affairs. Without any evidence no one had the right to point a finger at the institutions, they added.
The next day, two MNAs — MuttahidaQaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P’s) Mustafa Kamal and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party’s (IPP’s) Awn Chaudhry — also highlighted the judiciary’s alleged shortcomings and called for establishing ethical standards for the judges.
Kamal claimed the judiciary had set “ethical standards” for politicians and the dual citizenship of judges was a “big question mark” and the judiciary should be made answerable on this issue, while Awn had termed it a crisis that would lead to an “anarchy in the country”.
In late March, six IHC judges — out of a total strength of eight — wrote a startling letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) members, regarding attempts to pressure judges through the abduction and torture of their relatives as well as secret surveillance inside their homes.
Meanwhile, in a reported letter written this week to IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq on the breach of his family’s personal data, Justice Babar Sattar had said that while hearing the audio leaks case, he issued notices to the heads of intelligence and investigation agencies, besides relevant ministries.
Senator Vawda had said that the trend of targeting institutions must stop. He had asked why Justice Sattar had raised his voice “one year after the alleged interference”, adding that if the IHC judges had any evidence they should come forward. “We will stand with you.”
In his letter to Vawda, the additional registrar stated that “the conversation between potential candidates for appointment as judge or/an interview with the hon’ble chief justice and/or senior puisne judge of high court is not a communication of which record is maintained and minutes taken”.
