PTI announces rally in support of judges in KP

PTI announced Thursday that it would hold a protest rally in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to support six of the Islamabad High Court judges who have recently accused the intelligence agencies of meddling in judicial affairs, Aaj News reported.

Barrister Gohar and Sher Afzal Marwat announced during a news conference in Islamabad that the rally will take place in Peshawar.

Gohar conveyed support for the six justices of the Islamabad High Court who accused the nation’s intelligence agencies of coercion in a letter addressed to the CJP.

Marwat stated that following discussions with the KP authorities, the rally’s final plans would be made public.

The PTI leaders claimed that the letter of six IHC judges endorsed the stance of their party.

The development comes a day after six judges of the (IHC) wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the alleged “interference” and “intimidation” by the “operatives of intelligence agencies.”

The IHC judges including Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Justice Saman Raffat Imtiaz Tuesday wrote the letter to SJC seeking guidance on the interference of intelligent agencies in judicial functions.

The judge stated in the letter that they 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 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.”

In a related development, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) took serious exception to the undue interference of agencies in the judicial functioning and personal lives of the IHC judges. The SCBA’s statement said it is not only condemnable but requires serious actions by the judiciary as an institution.

Executive Committee of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Chairman Farooq H Naek has convened a meeting of the Council’s executive committee on April 5, 2024, to deliberate on the letter written by the IHC judge