The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday gave one-month time to the federal government to submit its reply on the issue of the audio leaks of former chief justice Saqib Nisar’s son Najamus Saqib and former first lady Bushra Bibi, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
“How is electronic surveillance being done, and who is doing it? The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) says that they have not given permission to anyone,” Justice Babar Sattar remarked during the hearing of both cases.
“The audio of the Prime Minister’s Office, a Supreme Court judge and a former Chief Justice’s family was leaked. It is a terrible decision to do so without taking the state of Pakistan into confidence,” he added.
“Who is the competent authority regarding audio tape? The Prime Minister's Office report states that it does not look into the day-to-day affairs of secret agencies,” he questioned.
Judicial Assistant Raza Rabbani submitted a written answer and said: “The court itself should not look into the matter. The matter should have been sent back to the committee. With the dissolution of the assembly, all the orders of the committees become ineffective.”
Attorney General Mansoor Awan said that there had been no investigation yet regarding the audios mentioned.
“It is not known whether they were recorded by a government agency or not. Let it be clear who recorded the audios. Anything about the intelligence agencies, that have the technology to record, can be told in in-camera operations,” he said.
“Proceedings against the petitioner should not have been initiated by the parliamentary committee. The petition has become ineffective after the dissolution of the Parliament. It should be disposed of,” he added.
“Talk to the prime minister. Talk to the cabinet. There should be a legal framework regarding audio taping. It cannot happen that even our conversations in our offices and chambers are being recorded. I will give you adequate time but submit a reply regarding legal scope in this regard,” he directed.
“This is the history of Pakistan, since the Benazir Bhutto case, these things are on record if our phones are being monitored, then we should know who is doing this,” he remarked.
“The FIA is also investigating one leaked audio. First, it should be determined where that audio came from and how was it leaked?” he added.
“The government formed a judicial commission comprising important judges related to audio leaks. Even in the TORs of that commission, there was no question as to who leaks audios?” he pointed out.
The court then adjourned the hearing, giving one-month time to the federal government to submit its reply.
Reporter: Rozina Ali