Justice Isa to take up pleas seeking cypher probe

ISLAMABAD (Agencies): Justice Qazi Faez Isa will take up petitions for the investigation of letter containing international conspiracy to topple the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government through no-confidence on Wednesday (today).
Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, Tariq Badar and Naeemul Hassan in March last year had filed the petitions in the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of Constitution requesting the Court to pass direction to probe the veracity of cipher on ‘international conspiracy’.
Bhutta in his petition contended that Pakistan after great efforts came out of grey list of FATF, but due to cipher, the law and order situation was created in the country. He requested the SC to direct the government to depute one military and one civilian agency to investigate about threatening letter.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan on 27th March, 2022 while addressing a public rally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers had pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and waved it at the crowd, claiming it was evidence of an “international conspiracy” being hatched to topple his government. The Pakistan Democratic Movement, coalition of 13 political parties, which are in the government now believe that the former premier used the letter as an excuse to woo the government’s allies and PTI dissidents in the face of the no-confidence motion against him.
Bhutta further stated in the petition that an “extraordinary situation” had caused a law and order situation in the country by causing hatred against friendly countries. He added that the situation required immediate steps to ease the “mental agony” of common Pakistanis caused by this development. The petitioner prayed that the respondent may be directed to deliver the ‘letter’ to the concerned civil and military authorities to investigate this threat/letter. The PTI government on March 30 said that it intended to take the issue to the apex court, and claimed that PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif was a part of the conspiracy.
Justice Tariq Masood, a Supreme Court judge on January 24, 2023 had refused to hear the petitions against the Registrar office’s objections raised on the petitions seeking directions for a probe cipher due to personal reasons.