ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a set of appeals seeking a probe into the cipher, billed as evidence of foreign conspiracy to topple Imran Khan’s government.

The order was announced by Justice Qazi Faez Isa during the first-of-its-kind open hearing, held inside his office chambers.

Syed Tariq Baddar, advocate Zulfikar Ahmed Bhutta, and Naeemul Hassan through their petitions had urged the court to order placement of cipher before a high-powered commission under the Pakistan Commission Inquiry Act 2017 to probe into the letter shown by Mr Khan at a March 27, 2022 PTI rally.

The media is usually not allowed to enter the chamber hearings, but Justice Isa invited the journalists waiting outside to come inside and witness the proceedings.

Justice Isa says petitioners failed to establish how cipher’s display endangered people’s security

The appeals were instituted against the April 1, 2022 registrar office decision of returning the petitions for invoking extraordinary jurisdiction of the apex court directly. Justice Isa, however, upheld the registrar office decision.

Earlier on Jan 24, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood while holding the proceedings in his chamber had recused himself from hearing the appeals. Citing personal reasons, he had referred the matter back to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial for placing the appeals before some other judge.

The CJP fixed the matter before Justice Isa who held that the petitioners had failed to establish how the security of people had been put at stake by the display of cipher and how it was directly connected with Article 9 of the constitution that deals with security of persons.

During the hearing, the petitioners conceded that the federal government enjoys the authority to appoint the commission.

Justice Isa said he never interfered in the executive’s affairs and would discourage others from interfering in judicial matters.

While dictating the order, Justice Isa observed he always liked to dictate the orders in the court to avoid speculations and doubts.

Was dealing with foreign affairs a job of the court, he wondered, adding did the former PM make any decision to investigate the matter in his capacity as chief executive of the country when he had all the authority to order the investigation since every authority was under his command.

Justice Isa also wondered did the petitioners want ciphers of all the embassies sent to the Supreme Court instead of the foreign ministry. If there is any attack in the future, would the Supreme Court announce war, he observed.

The judge said the government could publicise the ciphers if it wanted to, but if anyone else did this, it would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act.

The petitioners had pleaded that a probe was necessary because it was a matter of national interest since the indirect message relates to the security of Pakistan and may pose a threat to foreigners and ambassadors of Western countries living in Pakistan.

They feared that the letter waved by the former prime minister had created doubts against some friendly countries and made it the subject matter of every political gathering as if Pakistan’s affairs were controlled by foreign countries.

According to the petitions, it was not an ordinary [situation], rather an extraordinary situation which may create hatred against foreign countries, also endangering their embassies.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2023