ISLAMABAD: On Monday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and the Supreme Court judges on the audio leaks that have periodically surfaced on social media.
The PTI chief also filed an application to fix his appeal on 08-03-23 against the objections of the Registrar’s Office on his petition on the audio leaks. He also requested to set aside the impugned order of the Registrar’s Office.
In September last year, a slew of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures — including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, and some members of the federal cabinet — were leaked on social media. Recently, two alleged audio clips of the ex-CM Punjab Pervaiz Elahi surfaced on social media, in which, he can be heard giving directions to two men regarding fixing certain cases before a particular apex court judge.
Imran Khan’s petition pertains to the protection of rights granted by inter alia Articles 2A, 4, 9, 14, 17, 19, 19A, 51, 90, 91, and 97 of the Constitution, which continue to be violated as a result of the impugned actions.
In his letter, the PTI chairman said it was “now common knowledge that for the last several months mysterious unverified audio/ video clips have periodically surfaced on social media in the country purporting to carry alleged conversations between various public officials/ ex-public officials and on occasion private individuals”. He added that those “audio/ video clips have not been verified and appear to be either deep fakes or fabricated, edited, trimmed and joined, pieced together, and cannibalised to present an inaccurate and incorrect portrayal of the alleged conversations that they purport to carry”.
The PTI chief said the sequence of audio leaks began “several months ago when certain purported conversations were leaked” whose content suggested that “conversations taking place in the Prime Minister’s House/ Office were being surveilled and bugged on a systematic and routine basis”.
He noted the PMO was a “highly sensitive state installation where matters of great national sensitivity and importance are discussed” and that a breach of security there had a “grave effect on the lives, livelihood, safety, and security of the people of Pakistan”.
The former premier went on to assert that in recent months, the “use of unverified, unauthenticated, edited and tampered leaks have only widened in order to target and silence criticism”.
Imran referred to Articles 4 (right of individuals to be dealt with in accordance with law, etc) and 14 (inviolability of dignity of man, etc) of the Constitution to highlight how it guaranteed the rights to privacy of the citizens.
He lamented, “It has become increasingly obvious that this guarantee is not only being violated but being done so with an unjustifiable audacity and a clear sense of impunity.”
Referring to a recent audio leak featuring former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and a sitting Supreme Court judge, Imran said “matters had only gotten worse”. He asked, “Under what law are the people subject to such widespread surveillance and recording? By whom? To what end? Under what constrain and with what checks and balances in place?”
He raised the question of whether any measures had been “taken over the last several months to put an end to such breaches” and if “sensitive state installations” were secure.
The surveillance of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Prime Minister House (PMH) has been conducted in violation of statutory law, including inter alia the investigation for Fair Trials Act, 2013, Telegraph Act, 1885 and Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act, 1996, as well as, a judgment of the apex court in Benazir Bhutto vs President (PLD 1998, SC 388), which deprecated unlawful surveillance wholeheartedly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023