Alleged corruption in judiciary: PHC directs TI to republish 2023 report based on facts

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday announced the verdict reserved earlier on the Transparency International (TI) report, which had termed the judiciary the second most corrupt department in the province and ordered it to republish the annual report 2023 based on ground realities.

The court also directed the TI the report should be submitted to the PHC registrar by April 24.

The court asked the TI to include all the facts and figures in the report and reproduce it without any ambiguities.

Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court (PHC) Mohammad Ibrahim Khan had taken a suo motu notice of TI report 2023 in which the judiciary had been labelled as the second most corrupt section in the province.

The court after hearing arguments from all the parties had reserved the verdict on February 19, which was announced on Monday.

Quoting the survey, the PHC chief justice had said that 80 percent people had termed the judiciary clean, but the report did not mention it.

A senior lawyer, who was appointed as amicus curiae (friend of court) to assist the court, had told the bench through the video link that KP’s population stood at over 40 million while the survey recorded the responses of only 1,600 people of which 54 forms were rejected.

He had said that only 39 people out of 1,546 had said that the judiciary in KP was corrupt. The lawyer said that some points, that were mentioned in the report of the TI, were not based on facts.

The TI’s board member Habib Hashmat said the TI did not take any decision, rather the survey was based on public opinion.

The PHC chief justice had asked the TI board member to provide evidence about the prevalence of corruption in the judiciary so that action could be taken against whoever was involved in corrupt practices.

The chief justice had said that he would take action if provided proof of corruption in the judiciary, starting from the high court. He had said action would also be taken against the lower judiciary if evidence about corruption was provided.