ISLAMABAD: On Monday, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa presided over a case concerning alleged harassment of journalists by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
A three-member bench headed by the CJP convened to address the plea concerning FIA’s issuance of notices to journalists and allegations of harassment.
At the onset of the hearing, CJP Justice Qazi Faez Isa inquired from the FIA officer about the charges leveled against YouTuber Asad Toor.
“How were charges framed against Asad Toor?” queried the chief justice, further questioning the competence of individuals within the FIA.
He noted discrepancies between the notice served to Toor, which cited an anti-judiciary campaign, and the contents of the FIR.
“Why did you send notices to journalists using judges’ names? Did we lodge complaints against journalists?” questioned the chief justice.
During the proceedings, Justice Isa criticized the FIA for leveraging the Supreme Court’s authority to settle its own scores.
In a previous hearing, the Supreme Court (SC) had directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to retract notices issued to journalists critical of the judiciary.
Notably, in January, the FIA had dispatched summon notices to 65 individuals, including 47 journalists from both mainstream and social media platforms, regarding an alleged malicious anti-judiciary campaign.
It is worth mentioning that a caretaker government-appointed Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was tasked with probing a purported campaign against the judiciary, reportedly initiated after the Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision on December 22, which stripped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of its iconic symbol, the ‘bat’.
