slamabad :Despite repeated summons, former ISI chief Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hamid Tuesday again failed to appear before the Faizabad inquiry commission formed to probe the 2017 protest sit-in staged by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Geo News reported.
According to sources, the commission had summoned the former spy chief at 10.30am on Tuesday but he did not appear before the panel.
The commission is now considering a proposal to record his statement through video link, the insiders added.
This was the third time that the former ISI chief remained absent from the hearing being conducted by the inquiry commission, which earlier summoned him in the second week of December last year and then on December 29, sources said. However, the first notice couldn’t be delivered.
In November last year, the caretaker federal government constituted the inquiry commission for the implementation of the top court’s 2019 Faizabad verdict.
The probe panel was constituted on the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan under the chair of retired IGP Akhtar Ali Shah after the apex court rejected the fact-finding committee report constituted by the government.
On November 15, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had remarked that the commission would be empowered to summon anyone, including former army chiefs, prime ministers and chief justices.
The inquiry commission is required to submit its report to the top court on January 22.
The probe panel has also summoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on January 3 (today), sources had told Geo News on Monday.
Earlier, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, ex-interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, then-secretary to PM Fawad Hasan Fawad and other senior officials serving in Islamabad and Punjab who were involved in the episode had appeared before the probe panel.
In November 2017, the top court had taken suo motu notice of the three-week-long sit-in, which was held against a change in the finality-of-Prophethood oath, termed by the government as a clerical error, when the government passed the Elections Act 2017.
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