{"id":48843,"date":"2024-01-17T03:36:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T03:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/govt-forms-jit-to-probe-drive-against-judges\/"},"modified":"2024-01-17T03:36:55","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T03:36:55","slug":"govt-forms-jit-to-probe-drive-against-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/govt-forms-jit-to-probe-drive-against-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt forms JIT to probe drive against judges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>\u2022 Move follows \u2018malicious campaign\u2019 against judiciary after PTI symbol verdict<br \/>\u2022 Team constituted under Peca includes officials from police, FIA, PTA and intelligence agencies<br \/>\u2022 PBC, SCBA back chief justice, decry undue criticism<br \/>\u2022 PTI slams lawyer bodies\u2019 presser, insists Jan 13 judgement was \u2018flawed\u2019<\/p>\n<p>ISLAMABAD: The car\u00ade\u00adtaker government on Tue\u00ads\u00adday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1806327\">formed<\/a> a five-member joint investigation team (JIT) to \u201cascertain facts behind a malicious social media campaign\u201d against Supreme Court judges.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the country\u2019s premier legal bodies came to the aid of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and the Supreme Court against the backdrop of a \u201csmear campaign\u201d that erupted on social media soon after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1805488\/pti-bat-tered-loses-iconic-electoral-symbol-as-sc-restores-ecp-order\">Jan 13 judgement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The JIT \u2014 formed under Section 30 (power to investigate) of the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016 \u2014 will be convened by the additional director general of the Federal Investiga\u00adtion Agency\u2019s (FIA) cybercrime wing, according to an interior ministry notification, seen by <em>Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It also comprises representatives of the Intelli\u00adgence Bureau, Inter-Serv\u00adices Intelli\u00adge\u00adnce, the Pak\u00adis\u00adtan Telecom\u00adm\u00adu\u00adnication Authority (PTA), and the deputy inspector general of Islamabad police. The team can co-opt any other member if required.<\/p>\n<p>The notification, signed by FIA Deputy Secretary Muhammad Ziaul Haq, said the JIT\u2019s terms of reference would be to \u201cascertain facts behind malicious social media campaign attempting to malign the image of the honourable judges of the Supreme Court\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The committee will also identify and bring culprits to book in accordance with relevant laws, present challans in relevant courts and recommend measures to prevent such incidents in future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe JIT shall submit a preliminary report to the Ministry of Interior within a fortnight,\u201d the notification said, adding that the FIA headquarters would provide support to the panel during the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The authorities did not identify any social media posts they deem part of the campaign.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1806244\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>After marathon hearings last week, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by CJP Isa on Jan 13 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1805488\/pti-bat-tered-loses-iconic-electoral-symbol-as-sc-restores-ecp-order\">upheld<\/a> the Election Commission\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1800094\">decision<\/a> to revoke the PTI\u2019s iconic electoral symbol, the cricket bat, and declare its intra-party polls \u201cunconstitutional\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PBC, SCBA back Justice Isa<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in a media interaction at the Supreme Court building in Islam\u00adabad, officials of the Pak\u00adis\u00adtan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) backed CJP Isa amid renewed criticism following the Jan 13 judgement. They stressed that everybody had the right to criticise any judgement, but they would not tolerate the criticism of judges and the apex court using foul language.<\/p>\n<p>The representatives who spoke on the occasion included PBC Vice Chair\u00adman Haroonur Rashid; the chairman of its executive committee, Hassan Raza Pasha; senior member Qalbe Hassan; and SCBA President Shahzad Shaukat.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Rashid asked senior lawyers not to use contemptuous remarks against judges and to exercise caution in their commentary on judgements while maintaining their respect.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1754583\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Mr Shaukat lamented the tendency to initiate disparaging campaigns against judges and the courts. He insisted that passing fair comments on any judgement was acceptable, but mere criticism to bring the judiciary into disrepute should not be tolerated.<\/p>\n<p>He said the SCBA had monitored all programmes on different TV channels after the Jan 13 judgement and concluded that no one could find holes in the verdict, but everyone was merely criticising the denial of the election symbol.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to arguments that the top court could have given the benefit to the mainstream political party under Article 17 of the Constitution, a provision that talks about people\u2019s right to form a political party, Mr Shaukat explained that constitutional rights were subject to and subservient to laws.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  \">\n<p><div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"What is the Reason for the Bar Council Gathering in the Field? | Shahzad Shaukat | Dawn News\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n8Qd2S0nM7M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>He said the lawyer bodies would take all possible measures to block with force the trend of unleashing a disparaging campaign against the judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Pasha said both PBC and SCBA were on the same page in disseminating a clear message that the two bodies would not tolerate attempts to belittle the respect and prestige of the top judiciary and their adjudicators.<\/p>\n<p>Qalbe Hassan of the PBC called for a representative convention of office-bearers of all the bar councils and associations of the country to take a joint stand against the tendency to malign the judiciary and the judges on social media after an unfavourable verdict.<\/p>\n<p>This, he said, was essential to save democracy, which couldn\u2019t survive if the highest judicial institutions like the Supreme Court were targeted with impunity in such a regrettable manner.<\/p>\n<p>The officials also asked the PTA and the FIA that instead of becoming silent spectators, they should swiftly move by tracing social media accounts that generate such campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the court should also initiate contempt of court proceedings against those found guilty of launching smear campaigns against judges, they said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PTI flays \u2018political presser\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the PTI vehemently rejected the PBC and SCBA\u2019s \u201cpolitical press conference\u201d, saying it was part of the same scheme under which the door of free and fair elections had been closed by the Supreme Court upon 125 million voters of the country.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1806296\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In a statement, a PTI spokesperson said the SC decision to strip the party of its electoral symbol was absolutely flawed and offensive and allegedly opened the door to a distortion in the constitutional and democratic scheme of the country.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed that of the 175 political parties in the country, the PTI conducted the most effective and transparent intra-party elections. He said the party conducted two intra-party polls \u2014 on June 8, 2022, and Dec 2, 2023 \u2014 on which the ECP could not raise any reasonable and legal objections.<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 Move follows \u2018malicious campaign\u2019 against judiciary after PTI symbol verdict\u2022 Team constituted under Peca includes officials from police, FIA, PTA and intelligence agencies\u2022 PBC, SCBA back chief justice, decry undue criticism\u2022 PTI slams lawyer bodies\u2019 presser, insists Jan 13 judgement was \u2018flawed\u2019 ISLAMABAD: The car\u00ade\u00adtaker government on Tue\u00ads\u00adday formed a five-member joint investigation team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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