Alarm in Pak over number of militants contesting polls Pressure by ISI to give favourable verdicts: Pak judge
WASHINGTON CONCERNED US expresses apprehension over participation of individuals affiliated to Lashkaretaiba
silenced for ever.”
PML-N leader Pervaiz Rasheed, a former information minister, estimated that hundreds of such candidates are standing for elections. He expressed surprise on how many of these terrorists saw their names removed from the fourth schedule with ease.
Former chairman of the Senate, Raza Rabbani, said that the participation of alleged members of banned outfits in the elections is a new phenomenon that was emerging on the model of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad and Muttahida Majlis-i-amal.
In a reference to the TLP, Rabbani observed that 150 members of the “party that staged the sit-in at Faizabad” are candidates for National Assembly seats. Members of Allah-hu-akbar Tehreek (AAT) —most of whom belong to Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-udDawah (JUD) — are also contesting the polls, he noted.
Meanwhile, Washington too expressed its concern over the participation of individuals affiliated to the Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) and conveyed its apprehension to Islamabad, the US state department said in a statement.
The department however also noted with satisfaction that the Election Commission had rejected the registration of the Milli Muslim League (MML) in June, “citing its linkages to LET, an internationally-sanctioned terrorist organisation”.
The statement pointed out that the department also amended its Foreign Terrorist Organisation designation of LET in April to add the MML as an LET alias. LAHORE: A Pakistan high court judge on Saturday alleged that the powerful Inter-services Intelligence spy agency is pressuring the chief justice and other members of the judiciary to get favourable verdicts in different cases, including that against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Speaking at the Rawalpindi Bar Association, Islamabad high court judge Shaukat Siddiqui lashed out at the ISI for “controlling” the judiciary and media.
“Today the judiciary and media have come in the control of ‘Bandookwala’ (army). Judiciary is not independent. Even the media is getting directions from the military. The media is not speaking the truth because it is under pressure and has its interests,” he said.
He said: “The ISI forms benches of its choice to get desired results. The ISI had asked the chief justice to make sure Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz should not come out of jail before the election.”
The judge said the judiciary and media are a voice of people’s conscience. “If their freedom is curbed then Pakistan will remain no more an independent country. Owing to military dictatorship during half of 70 years of its history, Pakistan today is neither an Islamic nor a democratic country,” he said.