ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court office on Monday tried to put to rest a controversy surrounding the protocol accorded to superior court judges and their spouses at country’s airports, saying the registrar’s correspondence to the aviation secretary on Sept 21 had simply meant to remove an anomaly regarding judges’ protocols.

According to the initial registrar letter, spouses of retired judges were exempted from body searches, but the wives of serving judges had to undergo frisking at airports.

The registrar’s dispatch had expressed the hope that the aviation secretary would resolve the anomaly by stating that the airport security cards exempted the chief justice and judges of the Supreme Court, retired chief justices of the Supreme Court and wives of the retired chief justices and judges of the Supreme Court from body search. But surprisingly, the spouses of the serving chief justices and judges of the Supreme Court are not exempted from such frisking, the letter said.

In response the director general, Airport Security Force (ASF), through an Oct 12 letter, informed that the aviation secretary had exempted the spouses of the serving judges and chief justices of the Supreme Court from body search at the airport. But this letter was leaked to the media over the weekend.

On Monday, Shahid Hussain Kamboyo, the public relations officer (PRO) of the Supreme Court, wrote a joint letter to Aviation Secretary Saif Anjum and Director General of ASF, Major General Adnan Asif Jah Shad, regretting that the Oct 12 letter, surprisingly found its way to the media immediately after Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and his wife, Mrs Sarina Isa, left Pakistan for Turkiye during the Supreme Court’s winter vacations.

Kindly, in the interest of full disclosure, the PRO’s letter said, also disclose the Sept 21 letter of registrar of the Supreme Court to correct the misconceptions.

It said the body search exemption rule was not made by the Supreme Court nor was any exemption sought. The registrar had simply pointed out an anomaly.

“Your letter (aviation secretary), while resolving the anomaly does not offer an explanation and neither ASF nor the government of Pakistan was concerned about the security breach,” the PRO regretted and noted that the real facts that Mrs Sarina Isa, while departing from Pakistan on Dec 16, herself went into the cubicle of ASF and was searched by a lady officer.

The recording by cameras installed at the airport will confirm it . Thus neither any exemption was sought nor given, the letter explained.

The letter regretted it was interesting that the letter, written 66 days ago, had come into the public domain immediately on CJP Isa’s departure from Pakistan. The body search exemption cards for spouses have not been received, it added.

At the airport, CJP Isa was offered but he declined the use of the VIP lounge, it said, adding that the CJP also declined the use of the luxury limousine which drives VIPs right up to the aircraft.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2023