• Institutions busy chasing political opponents: Justice Minallah.
• Justice Malik says no could even predict a premier’s tenure.
• Institutions’ “lack willingness to do something”, laments SC judge.

ISLAMABAD: A pending trial of a 2017 murder in the Supreme Court prompted the senior judges to criticise the state institutions role in the political matters with Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail reprimanding them for involving in “political engineering” instead of performing their constitutional duties.

Besides Justice Mandokhail, SC’s Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan also lamented the state of affairs prevailing in the country while hearing a bail petition of a murder suspect Ishaq on Friday.

It is noteworthy to mention here that Ishaq fled after securing bail in the case and has yet to be arrested again.

“This case has been pending in the Supreme Court since 2017,” Justice Minallah remarked, adding: “[…] and the state is busy toppling and forming a government. All institutions are chasing political opponents. This situation would be different if the Constitution is implemented.”

Justice Mandokhail also expressed displeasure over the perofrmance of the state institutions and questioned what happened to cases after three prime ministers were killed in the country. He also remarked that a senior-most judge was killed in Balochistan.

The jurist noted that the major reason was the state institutions’ “unwillingness to do something”. “Compared to the other two provinces, the state of police prosecution is deplorable in Sindh and Punjab,” he observed.

He went on to say that people lacked confidence in the institutions and expected everything to be done by the top court. He added that no one should expect any positive change until state institutions keep themselves engaged in political engineering.

Regarding the apex court, Justice Minallah lamented that the admission of murder of a premier was made after 40 years, wondering what could be a bigger crime than this. He remarked that the court should have sentenced the responsible.

Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmed Khan also shed light on the level of uncertainty prevailing in the country. He remarked that what would happen to a common citizen in the country where a prime minister spends a day in the PM Office and the other day in the jail.

Justice Malik added that no one could predict the tenure of a premier in the country.

Later, the top court ordered the police to arrest the absconding murder suspect and handed him over to the jail officials.