ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) have demanded the recusal of Justice Babar Sattar from hearing audio leaks’ case.

Bushra Bibi and the son of ex-chief justice Saqib Nisar have filed petitions regarding the audio leaks, and a single bench of the IHC of Justice Babar Sattar had been hearing their petitions.

PEMRA, PTA FIA and IB on Saturday filed an application before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on seeking Justice Babar Sattar’s recusal from the audio leaks case.

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In a petition, the authorities pleaded with Justice Sattar to distance himself from the case. PEMRA maintained in the plea that the case remains pending despite its chairman appearing before the court multiple times. A separate bench of the IHC has already decided on another case of a similar nature, the PEMRA added. The petition noted that the same bench should decide on this case as well.

“To fulfill the demands of justice, Justice Babar should excuse himself from hearing the case,” the petition maintained.

The next hearing of the case is scheduled to be held on April 29.

In the last hearing, Justice Babar told Additional Attorney General Munawwar Duggal that for the past eight months he has been asking under which framework the agencies operate in the country.

The judge then inquired from PEMRA’s counsel if they had issued any instructions regarding the unconfirmed leaked audio calls being aired on media channels. The PEMRA’s counsel told that most the Authority could do was to prohibit the media from running them, adding it had issued instructions regarding the matter as per the IHC’s order.

The PTA chairman told Justice Sattar that 90 percent of mobiles have spyware through which their cameras can also be operated. An Israeli company made a software called Pegasus that infects a mobile, he explained, adding that hacking a phone was not a difficult task. “All it takes is a minute,” he said. “If you leave the phone with me to go to the washroom, I can connect my phone to yours and acquire full access to it in the meantime,” the counsel said.

Justice Babar then asked him if he was telling the court that all the phone tapping was being done illegally. The counsel, however, remained silent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024