The commission has attempted to investigate the Ex-CJP's audio leak

The commission has attempted to investigate the Ex-CJP's audio leak

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) and a member of the Sindh Judicial Commission requested the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday to set up an independent commission to verify the authenticity of the alleged audio of former Pakistani Supreme Judge Saqib Nisar and the Investigation to review certain events before and after a former prime minister's conviction.

The petition from SHCBA President Salahuddin Ahmed and Pakistani Judicial Commission (Sindh) member Syed Haider Imam Rizvi highlighted what had happened in the mainstream media before, during and after the condemnation of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N ) Supremo Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and son-in-law.

The Supreme Court RegistryOffice put the motion to Chief Justice Athar Minallah for a hearing on Monday.

The petition asked the IHC to appoint an independent commission, comprised of retired members or judges, legal professionals, journalists and members of civil society, to conduct a full investigation to verify the authenticity or non-authenticity of the audio recording allegedly by former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar. originates.

 

Petition calls for a transparent investigation

 to restore public confidence in the judiciary

                                                         

The petitioners asked the court to authorize this commission to also investigate the incidents/allegations made by the judiciary before and after the conviction of the Sharif family. According to the petition, a number of events tend to undermine the credibility, prestige and independence of the judiciary in the eyes of the people.

The petition also mentioned a letter dated April 28, 2017 that the then chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) wrote to the Supreme Court registrar after having had a telephone conversation with him in the former was told that he would expect a WhatsApp call. The then-chairman received a call on Whatsapp from a U.S. number in which the caller said that Mr. Bilal Rasool's name should be included on the new panel, the petition said. It stated that the panel he [caller] was referring to was the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) established by the Honble Supreme Court on April 20, 2017 at the request of Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Imran Khan.

Another event described in the petition was former Judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui's speech at the Rawalpindi Bar Association on July 21, 2018, in which he accused an espionage agency of manipulating legal proceedings and that the chairman of the Supreme Court of Islamabad had accepted ISI's instructions on setting up banks to hear cases involving former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz. The petition recalled that Judge Siddiqui was removed from service after speaking before his dismissal.

The petitioners cited Maryam Nawaz's press secretary on July 6, 2019 as the third event in which she published the alleged video confession of a former Justice Court judge Arshad Malik that she had sentenced the ex-prime minister under duress.

According to the petition, the affidavit of the former presiding judge of Gilgit-Baltistan, UK, which emerged on November 15, 2021, was the fourth occurrence. In the affidavit, Rana Mohammad Shamim accused former CJP Saqib Nisar of asking the IHC judge not to release Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif on bail at any price before the general election.

Later on November 20, audio allegedly talking about the convictions of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz went viral on social media. This has been described as the fifth event.

The petition mentioned that all of these events have undermined public confidence in the judiciary and damaged their reputation for independence and neutrality in the eyes of the public, ultimately making it difficult to access justice. While various aspects of the above events are secondary in different courts, the underlying question of the truth or falsehood of the allegations of outside interference in the judicial functions, and in particular the audio recording of the former CJP Saqib Nisar, remains to be examined in each judicial forum, it was said.

Public trust

The SHCBA and the member of the Judiciary Commission stressed in the petition the need to restore public confidence in the judiciary through a full, free, fair and impartial investigation.