ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Services Intelligence has filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), asking it to expunge adverse remarks of a high court judge from a judicial order in which he had accused ISI officials of manipulating judicial proceedings.

The ISI filed the appeal through Deputy Attorney General Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed. The appeal will be heard by a two-judge bench of the IHC next week. The appeal stated that Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC, while hearing a habeas corpus petition, unnecessarily dragged the country’s premier intelligence agency in a controversy.

The ISI stated in the appeal that the court order was widely circulated on social media within the country and abroad and damaged the reputation of the army, the ISI and the judiciary.

It requested the court to expunge the adverse remarks from the court order and also impose the cost of litigation on the petitioner for filing an allegedly frivolous petition.

Two-judge bench to take up appeal next week

As per the background of the case, one Mohammad Iftikhar Raja filed the petition before the IHC, alleging that his brother Rabnawaz had been abducted by spy agencies.

When police produced Rabnawaz — who was allegedly picked up by some identified people — before the court, he said that he had gone to Vehari on his own.

But his brother Iftikhar insisted that Rabnawaz was telling a lie and that he was abducted by officials of spy agencies and subjected to physical and mental torture.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2018