ISLAMABAD: Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) did not cooperate with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to trace the origin of a leaked call that disclosed the disbursement of certain amounts to the participants of the Faizabad sit-in, an IB official told the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday.

Speaking before Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, IB Joint Director General Anwar Ali said civil agencies had expressed their inability to identify the caller, whereas ISI and MI did not respond to IB’s request seeking identification of the caller.

The unknown caller spoke about the Faizabad sit-in staged in November last year with someone on phone.

He commented on different aspects of the sit-in and the flawed policy to handle the protesters.

Court sets Feb 20 deadline for submission of Zafarul Haq Committee report

He also named certain personalities that disbursed money among the protesters.

In the written reply submitted to the IHC, the IB stated: “Contact was made to the [ISI] at responsible level, but no response was received.” The response of MI was also the same.

The IB said the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and the National Forensic Science Agency lacked facilities to trace the caller while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also showed its incapability to handle such a matter.

During the course of hearing, Defence Secretary retired Lt Gen Zamir Hussain appeared before the court and remained seated till the time the court called him to the rostrum.

“Do you think this rostrum is a place of disgrace,” asked Justice Siddiqui.

The judge then asked Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Arshad Mehmood Kayani about the report of the Raja Zafarul Haq committee.

He warned that the court would issue contempt notices to the prime minister, interior minister, law minister and the minister for religious affairs in case the government failed to submit the report on the next date of hearing.

Since November last year, the court has consistently been seeking the report.

Justice Siddiqui observed that the conduct of the federal government was uncalled for.

“I failed to understand why order passed by this court is being frustrated by avoiding submission of report of the committee headed by Raja Zafarul Haq.”

The DAG replied that since Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was out of the country, the report could not be produced.

“The report is still incomplete and if the court desires it could be provided in the chamber as a confidential document,” he maintained.

The DAG requested the court to grant at least 15 days for the submission of the report. But the court directed him to submit it by Feb 20 or be ready for the consequences.

The court also asked the DAG to submit a report on a petition seeking data about non-Muslims working in different departments of the federal government showing themselves as Muslims.

He ordered the Establishment Division to submit the required data on the next date of hearing after which the court would start day-to-day proceedings in the case.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2018