LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday ordered the PM Office to
stop all the civil and military agencies including the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from contacting judges and any other member of
the judiciary.
Hearing a case relating to the harassment of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) judge in
Sargodha, LHC’s Justice Shahid Karim issued a four-page written interim order as
he had took over the case after Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan’s elevation to
the Supreme Court.
Justice Karim, during the previous hearing, issued instructions to the prime
minister to lay down guidelines for the security agencies. He said that it was the
responsibility of higher authorities to ensure the prevention of such incidents.
The written order states that no agency should “approach or contact” a judge
whether of superior judiciary or sub-ordinate judiciary or any member of their
staff in the future.
The court also said that the same instructions should be issued to all police officers
in Punjab to not contact directly any judge of the superior judiciary or the sub-
ordinate judiciary regarding the merits of any pending judicial proceedings before
these courts.
“In case certain measures have to be taken regarding security etc in respect of
Anti-Terrorism Courts across Punjab, these measures will only be put in place with
the consultation and concurrence of the learned judge of that court and not
otherwise,” said the order.
It also said that the IGP, and chief of police of the division or district will be
personally held responsible and will be proceeded against in contempt of the
orders in the LHC in case of violation.
Justice Karim also said that the judges of ATC across Punjab are directed to
download a call recording application and shall be bound to record all such calls
which they receive and with regard to which the learned judges have
apprehensions that they have been made to influence any judicial proceedings
before them.
“A direction is issued to the judges of Anti-Terrorism Courts across Punjab to deal
and decide the cases relating to May 9, 2023 expeditiously and on priority,” the
order said.
The court also directed the ATC judge and his staff to cooperate in the
investigation.
“All investigation proceedings should be video recorded and the record shall be
maintained by the police as also remitted to this court through the registrar.”
The court then adjourned the hearing till July 8.