Pakistan SC chides spy agencies

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday rapped the Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence over the replies submitted by them about the detention of 11 men on terrorism charges, calling them the "biggest violators" of the law.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry voiced its reservations while hearing the case of the 11 men who were detained by the intelligence agencies in May 2010, after being cleared by an anti-terrorism court.

The bench expressed its dissatisfaction with the written replies submitted by the intelligence agencies, in which they alleged the men were involved in several acts of terrorism, including attacks on the army's General Headquarters in 2009 and an ISI facility in Rawalpindi in 2007.

During the hearing, the bench observed: "You need to take this out of your mind that you (ISI and Military Intelligence) are superior and others are inferior."

The chief justice asked Raja Irshad, the lawyer representing the ISI and Military Intelligence: "Under which law have you been detaining them?"

Irshad evaded the query and said the court's concerns were "being conveyed to the authorities concerned."

The chief justice further remarked that the intelligence agencies should act within the limits of law as they were not "above the law".

He referred to the intelligence agencies as the "biggest violators" of the law, saying they had become "insensitive" to issues.

Four of the 11 men detained by the intelligence agencies have died in mysterious circumstances over the past six months, while the others were in very poor health when they were produced in the apex court on February 11. The seven men were unable to walk or stand without help and some of them carried urine bags.