Pak SC raps its security agencies over failure to submit new Faizabad sit-in report

Pakistan's Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday slammed the country's security agencies over its failure to present a subsequent report on the Faizabad sit-in which took place last year.

A two-member bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam Qazi Faez Isa and Musheer Alam resumed hearing a suo motu case on the sit-in, reported the Dawn.

Pakistan's government and protesters, after a weeks-long protest at the Faizabad interchange, reached an army-brokered agreement in November 2017, in which the former had agreed to the latter's demands.

According to the report, Justice Isa asked the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Raja Khalid if the agencies had a report to submit, to which DAG had replied in negative, saying that the court had not issued any orders for the same.

"Who is paying you? Who is paying the Inter-Services Intelligence? No one should consider themselves above the law," Justice Isa told the DAG, adding that last month's rejection of should have prompted submission of a new report on the same issue.

The SC, last month, had rejected Pakistan's intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence's (ISI) report on the Faizabad sit-in, branding it "unsatisfactory".

"This report is deeply unsettling: it has been prepared by one of the premier agencies of the country, yet a journalist could have given more details [about the protests] than this report," Justice Isa had said after reviewing the document.

The court will resume hearing in the case after 10 days.