Following the receipt of threatening letters laced with “white powder” by all eight judges of the high court, Islamabad police filed a case on terror charges on Tuesday.
Section 507 of the Pakistan Penal Code (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (punishment for acts of terrorism) were the grounds for the first information report (FIR), which was filed in response to a complaint made by duty clerk Qadeer Ahmed at the police station of the Counter Terrorism Department in the capital.
Ahmed said in the FIR, a copy of which can be found on Dawn.com, that he was employed by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and that eight letters, one for each of the court’s justices, including Chief Justice (CJ) Aamer Farooq, had been received the day prior. He reported that the judges’ personal secretaries had received the letters, which had been sent today.
He claimed that although the sender was identified as a woman by the name of Resham, no address was provided. Shortly after, according to Qadeer, he received word that one of the letters contained a “chemical powder.” He continued by saying that the judges’ staff was then told not to read the other letters.
He claimed that the sender had tried to sway court judgments by inciting “fear and harassment,” and that the police had been alerted to the situation right away.
Ahmed continued by saying that when police officers arrived at the IHC at 2:00 pm, they confiscated every letter. Of the eight letters, four had already been opened and the other four were sealed. He claimed that the unsealed parcels contained a “white powder.”
A police team, he added, had come to have a preliminary look at the powder. The complaint said that the letters that had been opened threatened the legal system, mentioned a group called Tehreek Namoos-i-Pakistan, and used the term “Bacilus Anthracis.”
Bacillus Anthracis, the anthrax germ, multiplies in the bloodstream and generates potent toxins that sicken and kill victims. An extended course of antibiotics is typically used to treat infections.
Earlier today, during the hearing of PTI founder Imran Khan’s appeal against his conviction in the cipher case, CJ Farooq made reference to the incident. He had stated at the hearing that the problem was one of the causes of the proceedings’ delay.
The top justice of the IHC had said, “basically, the high court has been threatened.”
The Islamabad police, meanwhile, announced that they had started an inquiry into the “threatening letters” and will shortly use all of their resources to finish it.
The action was “clearly intended to intimidate” the IHC judges, according to the PTI, which also called for a “immediate and comprehensive investigation” into the case.
The event occurs a few days after six judges from the IHC shocked the members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) last week by writing a letter in which they detailed attempts to intimidate judges by kidnapping and torturing their family and by installing covert cameras in their houses.
Signatories to the letter included Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Arbab Muhammad Tahir, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, and Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri.
One day later, appeals for an investigation into the investigation had surfaced from a number of sources. In response, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa called a meeting of the whole court of justices of the highest court.
Following the cabinet’s agreement, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and CJP Isa decided to form a panel to look into the allegations of involvement in judicial affairs on Thursday.
The federal cabinet decided on Saturday to establish an inquiry commission led by former CJP Tassaduq Hussain Jillani to look into the claims and determine their veracity.
The top court was urged to take “cognisance of the matter in its jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution as this issue eminently relates to public interest and to the enforcement of fundamental rights” by attorneys and representatives of civil society in a joint letter on Sunday.
As the federal cabinet’s “powerless” one-man commission to look into the claims was dismissed, they had urged the highest court to start suo motu proceedings.
After Jillani declined to join the one-man commission that was formed to look into the claims of the executive branch meddling in court reports, the supreme court formed a seven-member bench to look into the allegations of meddling, with the court’s first hearing scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday).
Tehreek Namoos-i-Pakistan
On Trail 5 in the capital, the Bomb Disposal Squad discovered a bag on September of last year that included three grenades, a handgun, and an alleged threatening note.
Judges and generals received a menacing letter from an unidentified group called Tehreek Tahaffuz Namoos-i-Pakistan. There was also a map in the bag that included details on some of the federal capital’s most significant buildings.
According to the letter discovered in the bag, generals were persistently meddling in politics, the then-caretaker administration had become a slave to the International Monetary Fund, and the situation in Pakistan was getting worse. It also indicated that inflation was going out of control.
“The nation’s legal system is corrupt, and brain drain is at its highest point. There is no hope for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis. The message had said, “We have decided to teach judges and generals a lesson.”
