ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani high court on Saturday directed the Prime Minister’s Office to instruct all military and civil intelligence agencies against “contacting or approaching” any judges or members of their staff, amid accusations of interference and intimidation by spies in judicial decisions.
The interim order by the Lahore High Court in the central Pakistani province of Punjab comes in the background of several senior judges accusing the military’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of meddling in judicial proceedings to influence verdicts. The army denies it interferes in political matters. It has so far refrained from commenting on any accusations regarding the ISI’s alleged interference and intimidation.
In the most high-profile accusations, six Islamabad High Court judges earlier this year wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council watchdog and accused the ISI of intimidating and coercing them over legal cases, particularly “politically consequential” ones. The judges provided various examples of alleged interference, including a case concerning Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan. The letter also mentioned incidents where the judges said their relatives were abducted and tortured and their homes were secretly surveilled, aiming to coerce them into delivering favorable judgments in specific cases.
In the case in which the LHC issued the latest interim order, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) judge in the city of Sargodha had filed a complaint alleging harassment by ISI personnel after he refused a meeting in his chambers.
“Instructions shall go out by the Prime Minister’s Office to all civil or military agencies including the Intelligence Bureau as well as ISI regarding strict instructions not to approach or contact any judge whether of the superior judiciary or sub-ordinate judiciary or any member of their staff in future,” a four-page order by the court, seen by Arab News on Saturday, read.
“Such instruction in clear words and writing shall be placed before this court on the next date of hearing.”
The court also directed all ATC judges across the Punjab province to download call recording applications on their mobile phones.
“They shall be bound to record all such calls which they receive and about which the learned judges have apprehensions that they have been made to influence any judicial proceedings before them,” the interim order said.
In February 2019, the Supreme Court delivered a scathing verdict on the military and intelligence agencies exceeding their mandate and meddling in politics over their handling of protests in 2017 by a religious-political party.
The Supreme Court had been investigating the “Faizabad protest,” which saw a hard-line group paralyze the capital Islamabad over accusations of blasphemy against a sitting minister. The inquiry also looked at the role of security agencies, including in ending the standoff through mediation.
Seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded when police initially tried but failed to remove protesters.
The military is widely seen to have disagreed with civilian authorities at the time over how to handle the protests. The army’s role particularly came under criticism after video footage shared on social media showed a senior officer from the ISI giving cash to protesters after a deal was struck to end the blockade.
“The involvement of ISI and of the members of the Armed Forces in politics, media and other ‘unlawful activities’ should have stopped,” Supreme Court Justices Mushir Alam and Qazi Faez Isa, now the chief justice of Pakistan, said in their verdict. 
“Instead when (protest) participants received cash handouts from men in uniform, the perception of their involvement gained traction.”
In the past, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has also accused the ISI of intimidating court decisions, including those that led to convictions of his elder brother Nawaz Sharif after his ouster from the prime minister’s office in 2017. Ex-PM Imran Khan and his party have also alleged harassment by intelligence agencies. 
The powerful army plays an oversized role in Pakistani politics. The country has been ruled by military regimes for almost half its history since independence from Britain in 1947. Khan and the elder Sharif both have alleged that they were ousted by the military after they fell out with the generals. The army denies this.

ISLAMABAD: US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Horst has said relations with Pakistan were in the “best place” they had been in years, days after a US congressional resolution calling for a probe into alleged election irregularities drew a strong reaction from Islamabad.
Ties between Islamabad and Washington, once close allies, have just started to warm after some years of frosty relations, mostly due to concerns about Pakistan’s alleged support of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Pakistan has always denies this support.
Relations strained further under the government of former prime minister Imran Khan, who ruled from 2018-22 and antagonized Washington throughout his tenure, welcoming the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 and later accusing Washington of being behind his ouster from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022. Washington has dismissed the accusation. 
PM Shehbaz Sharif, now in his second term as premier since Khan’s ouster, has tried to mend ties but analysts widely believe the United States is not seeking a significant broadening of ties with Islamabad in the near future but will remain mostly focused on security cooperation, especially on counterterrorism and Afghanistan.
“I just want to note that the US-Pakistan relationship is in the best place it’s been in years, in part, in large part to what Ambassador Masood Khan has done to represent Pakistan and to build bridges between Islamabad and Washington,” Horst said on Friday night at a farewell dinner for the outgoing Pakistani envoy. 
“You should know you depart Washington leaving the relationship between Pakistan and the US better than when you came and the strongest it has been in a long time.”
The two countries had held “new dialogues” and identified new areas of cooperation on trade, health, energy and climate in recent years, Horst said. 
“And of all that is because you Masood have been an extraordinarily representative of the Pakistani people and the government … And like any long-standing relationship, there is always a little bit of friction at times but because of you we know how we can talk through this through a framework.”
On Friday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office confirmed the appointment of senior bureaucrat Rizwan Saeed Sheikh as the country’s new ambassador to the US.