Gujranwala Additional Sessions Judge Tariq Saleem Chohan on Friday summoned Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo to court on August 8 regarding his accusation that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed's "people" were behind the opposition's embarrassing failure in a no-confidence vote against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

Judge Chohan had accepted for hearing the petition, submitted by well-known lawyer Manzoor Qadir Bhinder, and summoned a report on the matter from the Gujranwala city police officer (CPO).

As per the petitioner, after losing the Senate vote, Bizenjo had made a "baseless and false" statement against the head of a state institution. Bhinder claimed that this was an attempt to defame a key leader of the Pakistan Army.

He asked the court to request the Gujranwala CPO to instruct the Civil Lines police station to register a case against Bizenjo.

The Senate secretary has also been sent a notice for Bizenjo's appearance in the court.

The joint opposition had last month submitted a no-confidence resolution against Sanjrani and had named Bizenjo as its candidate for the position. On Thursday, the opposition suffered a shock defeat when it fell three votes short to dismiss the Senate chairman despite having a comfortable majority in the Upper House.

After the vote, as Bizenjo was walking out of the Senate building, a journalist asked if the senator knew the 14 turncoats who had voted against their party's stated stance.

Bizenjo responded: "These are Gen Faiz's people. You know Gen Faiz, the ISI chief? [They] were his people."

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had early on Friday denounced the statement.

In a tweet posted on Maj Gen Ghafoor's official Twitter account early today, the ISPR chief said that Bizenjo's remarks were "unfounded" and did not "serve democracy".

In a post shared on Twitter, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had also slammed Bizenjo's remarks.

He said: "Hasil Bazenjo is among the lot who have been made hero by [the] anti-Pak and anti-Army segment of media [and] politicians, he is used [and] abused by shrewd fellows like [Maulana Fazlur Rehman]."

"His rants against a very honourable officer is nothing but rubbish."