In a welcome move, the federal government Thursday announced it will constitute an inquiry commission to probe the Islamabad High Court judges’ allegations of inter-ference by the intelligence agencies in their judicial work. At a news conference, Fed-eral Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazir Tarar said the inquiry commission would be led by a retired and impartial judge and the Terms of Reference (TORs) would take into account current and future issues.
The writing of a letter by six honourable judges of the Islamabad High Court about interference in the working of the judiciary was an extraordinary development and the issue needed proper and thorough investigations. The letter prompted the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa to invite judges of the IHC for personal hearing and hold a full-court meeting of the apex court, where it was suggested that the CJP may hold a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the issue. While the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan maintained that interference of the executive in the working of the judiciary would not be tolerated, the Prime Minister assured that there will be no compromise on the independence of the judiciary, adding that it was the government’s duty to investigate the matter. The CJP and the senior puisne judge (who was present in the meeting) said independence of the judiciary was a foundational pillar that up-held the rule of law and a strong democracy. The two leaders agreed on the formation of a judicial commission to probe the matter and hopefully the commission would go deep into allegations and make necessary recommendations for the future in the inter-est of harmonious relationship among all pillars of the state. Incidentally, there have been repeated allegations of interference in each other’s domain by these pillars, im-periling the strength of the state. This time round, the judiciary has complained of in-terference by security agencies in their working but in the past there have been consis-tent allegations of judicial overreach by way of selective interpretation of the Consti-tution and the law as well as meddling into affairs that fall strictly within the domain of the parliament. In this backdrop, it is good that the Prime Minister and the CJP moved quickly to sort out an issue that has the potential to rock the system. Already, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and all high court bar associations have also called for an investigation into alleged interference in judicial matters. Strangely enough, the PTI, which has all along been demanding judicial probe into different is-sues of concern to it, found it appropriate to reject the formation of the judicial com-mission, arguing that the letter should be placed before the full court of the Supreme Court. The tendency of using serious and sensitive issues for scoring political points is regrettable and needs to be shunned. It is wrong to cast aspersions on the integrity of the proposed commission even before its nomination. The commission would surely afford an opportunity to the six judges lodging complaints of interference to substan-tiate their claims by material evidence and in case concrete evidence emerges out of judicial investigations then it would be for the Supreme Court to determine the further course of action.
