LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is responsible and answerable for the actions of intelligence agencies as they come under his command.

These remarks were made by Justice Shahid Karim while hearing a complaint filed by an anti-terrorism court judge in Sargodha against his harassment after he allegedly refused to meet officials of an intelligence agency.

Former LHC CJ Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan took a suo motu notice on the judge’s complaint filed with the registrar and started proceedings. Following his elevation to the Supreme Court, Justice Karim is presiding over the case.

During today’s hearing, Justice Karim also converted the judge’s complaint into a writ petition and appointed the Punjab prosecutor general as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter.

Justice Karim says court will question PM Shehbaz over agencies’ actions; advises judges to ‘record threatening calls’

The judge also issued a direction to the prime minister — through the principal secretary — to make guidelines for security agencies.

‘PM to be questioned’

“If anything happens thereafter, the court will directly question the prime minister, who must take responsibility as both the ISI and Intelligence Bureau (IB) fall under his jurisdiction,” Justice Karim maintained.

Earlier, the judge observed that it was the responsibility of senior police officials to prevent the incidents of restricting access to the courts under the pretext of security threats.

This was in reference to the Sargodha ATC judge’s complaint that after he rejected prosecution’s adjournment motion in 19 post-arrest bail petitions, all roads leading to the court were blocked on account of an alleged threat alert.

Justice Karim stated that a responsible senior police officer may also contact the presiding judge of ATC Sargodha, Muhammad Abbas.

He warned the Punjab police chief that if such an incident occurred in courts, police would be held accountable.

The government counsel also sought time for police officers to respond to show-cause notices issued by the former LHC CJ, Justice Khan, on June 20.

The request was approved by Justice Karim.

The lawyer argued that the federal government was ready to cooperate with the police and other agencies.

The judge remarked that all ATC judges should have applications installed on their mobile phones to record any threatening phone calls.

The law officer stated that if it was found that someone tried to contact the ATC judge, the government would investigate the matter.

Later, the hearing was adjourned till July 11.

Judge Abbas’ complaint with the LHC registrar office pertained to his first day as in charge of ATC Sargodha on June 7 when he was told that “some authority of ISI” wanted to meet him in his chamber.

The judge said he straightaway refused the request.

Since then, he listed a number of harassment incidents targeted at his family, including damages to the gas meter installed outside his official residence in Bahawalpur, where he was serving before being posted to Sargodha.

He also submitted that his family received an inflated electricity bill for a previous month, which was apparently a fake, and the possibility cannot be ruled out that it was sent in connivance of the power utility company and intelligence agency members. The judicial officer reported that his relatives were also “teased” by some unknown men about his personal information.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024