ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued notices to federation in a petition filed against a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between National Accountability Court (NAB) and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq conducted hearing of the petition and issued notices to other respondents including secretaries of Defense, Law and Justice and Foreign Affairs.
The bench also directed the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) to inform the court in this matter after taking directions from the government and deferred the proceedings till February 11.
In this matter, civil society through Muhammad Tahir moved the court and cited Prime Minister of Pakistan, Federation through Secretary Ministry of Defense, Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice and Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs as respondents.
Petitioner’s counsel Tariq Asad Advocate stated in the petition that reportedly a meeting of the federal cabinet was held on 29-12-2020 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan in which besides other matters the federal cabinet approved signing of a MoU between National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
He mentioned that it was reported that the Human Rights Minister, Shireen Mazari opposed the move and said that MoU move would open a political pandora box but federal cabinet bulldozed the dissenting opinion of Human Rights Minister and approved the signing of MoU between anti-graft watchdog NAB and FBI.
He said that the MoU would pave the way for the FBI in Pakistan. The petitioner further said that reportedly out of 28 cabinet members 14 voted in favour of MoU and 13 did not vote, whereas, the Human Rights Minister Ms. Sheerin Mazari vehemently opposed the MoU but her opinion was rejected meaning thereby that 13 were not in its favour in principle and one, a senior member of cabinet, vehemently opposed it.
The counsel maintained that beyond any doubt, Pakistan has the most intelligence agencies, ISI being at the top, then why are we dependent upon the intelligence of others particularly the intelligence agency of US who has never been sincere to Pakistan - who has never been sincere to the Muslims. They have been the friends of Pakistan’s enemy.
They are the same creed who had killed over 25 million Muslims in Spain – Queen Isabella and Ferdinand who had formulated theory of discovery – conversion of Muslims to Christianity, killing almost 25 million Muslims and burning their huge libraries.
Therefore, he prayed to the court to direct the federal government to refer the matter to the Parliament to decide the matter by secret ballot and constitute, in alternate, a high level judicial commission to probe into the matter thoroughly about the contents of the MoU directing to place its report before this court within fortnight before signing the MoU.
He requested the court to direct the respondent No. 1 to conduct courses for the investigation staff of NAB and FIA for the learning objectives of training of investigation on modern techniques and direct the respondents to restrict the movements of Americans and all other diplomats within the diplomatic areas.