Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Hameed, former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has firmly denied allegations of him meeting former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and manipulating the judicial proceedings related to the Panama Papers case, Geo has reported.
General Hameed labeled the accusations as “absolutely false, frivolous, concocted, and based on an afterthought.”
He emphasized that he neither contacted Judge Siddiqui nor engaged in any meetings with him, rejecting any involvement in discussions about the appeals filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif in the court.
IHC former chief justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi also submitted his response to the Supreme Court rejecting Siddiqui’s allegations.
In addition, Brigadier (retd) Irfan Ramay’s reply has also been submitted to the top court, in which he denies the allegations against him and meeting Siddiqui.
Contrary to Faiz Hameed’s reply, Siddiqui claims he has concrete evidence of two meetings with Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed at his official residence in 2018.
Talking to Geo News, Siddiqui says he not only has a list of witnesses but also material evidence to prove his allegation that the then-DG ISI visited him twice when he was a senior serving judge.
Siddiqui says if required, he can furnish the evidence to the Supreme Court, which is presently hearing an appeal against his dismissal by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in October 2018.
Referring to the replies of Gen (retd) Faiz and others submitted to the Supreme Court in his case, he says the replies that deny his allegations prove the point that he was dismissed from service by the SJC without inquiring about the matter.
Siddiqui says a day after his address to the Rawalpindi Bar Association on July 22, he had formally approached the then chief justice Saqib Nisar requesting him to constitute a commission to probe the authenticity and truthfulness of what he had alleged in the address.
“If an independent commission holds that there’s no reality in the facts presented in the meeting of District Bar Association Rawalpindi, I am ready to face the consequences, but at the same time, I have a right to enquire that if my presented facts proved correct, what would be the fate of those persons, be they the serving army personnel who are involved in manipulating the judicial system,” reads his letter written to the then CJP.
Siddiqui requested the issuance of directives for open proceedings of an independent commission, allowing media, civil society, and the legal fraternity to attend the inquiry into his allegations.
Expressing his distress, Siddiqui stated, “It is a matter of concern that the independence of my institution has been compromised by the intervention of a few individuals of the prestigious institution of the Army and its allied agencies.”
He noted that he had previously pointed out this intervention, leading to the initiation of a reference against him, along with another he deemed fabricated.
Siddiqui’s troubles began after he addressed the District Bar Association on July 21, 2018, at the invitation of the executive body.
During this address, he presented facts related to the Constitution’s applicability, the rule of law, the independence of the bar and bench, and the dispensation of justice.
Following his revelations, Siddiqui claimed that a false and malicious campaign was launched against him on social and electronic media.
The former judge expressed his disappointment, revealing that he learned of the Supreme Court’s instant annoyance through social media and the press release of the Supreme Court’s Public Relations Officer (PRO). Siddiqui noted that such outbursts of anger from the Supreme Court were not new and unusual in his experience.
Despite Siddiqui’s request for an independent commission to probe the authenticity of his claims, none was constituted.
Read more: Supreme Court issues notice to ex-DG ISI Faiz Hameed in Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui plea
