Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to hold meeting with Chief Justice on IHC Judges' letter issue

According to sources, PM Shehbaz, along with Law Minister Nazir Tarar and Attorney General of Pakistan Mansoor Awan, will meet the top judge today at 2 pm on the premises of the Supreme Court.

This comes after the CJP sent a message to PM Shehbaz over the matter of the letter written by six judges of the Islamabad High Court on 'interference in judicial affairs', the sources said.

Earlier, the Supreme Court held a full court meeting on Wednesday to deliberate on a letter by the six Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges about the alleged interference of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with "judicial functions," ARY News reported.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, among other top court judges, attended the meeting that lasted for over two hours in the federal capital.

The development took place after the bar associations and legal experts called for a probe into the letter.

On Tuesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges urged the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to convene a judicial convention over the alleged interference of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in judicial matters, according to Geo News.

All seven judges of the IHC, except Chief Justice Amer Farooq, wrote to the Supreme Judicial Council and all judges of the Supreme Court, highlighting, how senior ISI officials have been influencing judicial proceedings and pressuring judges.

"We are writing to seek guidance from the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with regard to the duty of a judge to report and respond to actions on the part of members of the executive, including operatives of intelligence agencies, that seek to interfere with discharge of his/her official functions and qualify as intimidation, as well as the duty to report any such actions that come to his/her attention in relation to colleagues and/or members of the courts that the High Court supervises," the letter read.

This came days after the apex court declared the removal of former IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui illegal and directed that he may now be considered a retired judge, as reported by Geo News.

"Justice Siddiqui had been removed after he had publicly alleged that operatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence ("ISI"), led by Major General Faiz Hameed (DG-C of ISI), were determining the constitution of benches at IHC and interfering with proceedings of the Accountability Court Islamabad," the letter added. (ANI)