- Institutions busy chasing political opponents: Judge Minallah.
- Justice Malik says no one can even predict the tenure of a prime minister.
- The “lack of will to do something” of the institutions, deplores the SC judge.
ISLAMABAD: An ongoing trial over a 2017 murder in the Supreme Court has prompted senior judges to criticize the role of state institutions in political affairs, with Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail chastising them for being involved in “engineering political” instead of discharging their constitutional functions.
Besides Justice Mandokhail, SC Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan also deplored the prevailing situation in the country while hearing a bail plea of murder suspect Ishaq on Friday .
It is worth mentioning here that Ishaq absconded after getting bail in this case and is yet to be arrested.
“This case has been pending before the Supreme Court since 2017,” underlined Judge Minallah, adding: “(…) and the state is in the process of overthrowing and forming a government. All institutions are chasing political opponents. This situation would be different if the Constitution is implemented.”
Justice Mandokhail also expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of state institutions and wondered what happened to the cases after the assassination of three prime ministers in the country. He also noted that a senior judge was killed in Balochistan.
The lawyer stressed that the main reason was the “reluctance to do something” of state institutions. “Compared to the other two provinces, the state of police prosecution is deplorable in Sindh and Punjab,” he observed.
He added that people lacked trust in institutions and expected everything to be done by the highest court. He added that no one should expect positive change until state institutions remain engaged in political engineering.
Regarding the apex court, Justice Minallah lamented that the confession of the murder of a prime minister was made after 40 years, wondering what could be a more serious crime than that. He noted that the court should have convicted the person responsible.
Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed Khan also highlighted the level of uncertainty in the country. He pointed out what would happen to an ordinary citizen in a country where a prime minister spends one day in the prime minister’s office and the other day in jail.
Justice Malik added that no one can predict the tenure of a prime minister of the country.
Later, the top court ordered the police to arrest the absconding murder suspect and hand him over to jail authorities.