The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday for the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the audio leaks involving several party leaders and former prime minister Imran Khan and to declare the act of recording audio conversations of political leaders to be “unconstitutional.”
The petition was filed by PTI Central Punjab President Yasmeen Rashid through Attorney Rana Mudassir, naming as respondents the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the chief secretary of Punjab, and ARY News, among others.
Monday is the day that the appeal will be heard.
The petition comes days after a recording of a phone call between Dr. Yasmin and former CCPO Ghulam Mehmood Dogar was posted online. It was merely the most recent in a string of leaked private conversations involving opposition leaders and their allies.
In the leaked audio, the PTI leader asks the police officer if he has received the posting orders since being reinstated as the CCPO of Lahore on Friday by a Supreme Court bench. According to the audio clip, the officer stated that no orders had reached him.
The former health minister of Punjab stated, without naming anyone, that she had called to determine “their intentions.” She implied that Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI, was “concerned” about the issues surrounding the reinstatement of the former Lahore police chief.
Dr. Rashid noted in her petition filed today that audio recordings of PTI leadership conversations are being leaked.
“These acts appear to be a personal assault and violation of constitutional rights of freedom of thought, speech, and the right to dignity and privacy, but in reality they threaten and undermine the constitutional dispensation of rule of law, democracy, democratic institutions, and the constitution of Pakistan, 1973 itself.”
She stated that such actions amounted to depriving political leaders of their basic fundamental rights of freedom of thought and speech, as well as the right to dignity and privacy, as well as removing them from political activities “as feeling constantly threatened that their mobile phone calls are being secretly recorded by agencies in an effort to blackmail them.”
She demanded that a judicial commission comprised of senior judges of the high court be established to investigate the situation.
Dr. Rashid also requested that the court prohibit the mainstream media from airing leaked audio recordings.
“It is humbly prayed that this petition be graciously accepted and that the very act of audio tape recording and broadcasting on electronic media by respondents be declared to be in violation of the constitutionally protected rights under articles 2A, 4, 5, 9, 14, 17, 19 i.e. right to freedom of thought and speech, right to dignity and privacy, right to life and freedom as well as a collective right to be an active member of political party namely PTI for est.
Earlier this week, the PTI chief wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and other Supreme Court judges, seeking “enforcement” of the fundamental rights of the public, including the Constitution’s Article 14 (fundamental right to privacy), in relation to a series of private telephonic conversations of political leaders that have surfaced online in recent months.
Numerous audio recordings
In September of the previous year, a number of audio recordings of conversations between prominent government figures, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, and some members of the federal cabinet, were made public.
The content of the recordings appeared to be informal conversations in the office of the Prime Minister, as opposed to phone conversations.
First, a recording of Shehbaz discussing with an unnamed official the possibility of facilitating the import of Indian machinery for a Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Raheel’s power project surfaced.
A day later, additional recordings regarding former finance minister Miftah Ismail and the resignations of PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly surfaced and were shared on social media by multiple PTI leaders.
One clip purportedly features a conversation between PML-N Vice President Maryam and the prime minister regarding Miftah, in which a voice believed to belong to the latter states that Miftah “doesn’t know what he is doing” and calls for the return of PML-N stalwart Ishaq Dar.
A second clip allegedly depicts a conversation between the prime minister, defence minister Khawaja Asif, law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, interior minister Rana Sanaullah, and Ayaz Sadiq regarding the resignations of PTI lawmakers.
A third clip allegedly depicts a conversation between Maryam Nawaz and Prime Minister Shehbaz regarding the return of former army chief retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.
A high-level committee will be formed to investigate the audio leaks, which Prime Minister Shehbaz described as a “very serious breach.”
Simultaneously, the prime minister stated that Imran’s audio leaks were “an irrefutable endorsement” that the PTI leader was “the biggest liar on earth.”
Recently, two alleged audio clips of Elahi have surfaced on social media in which he is heard giving instructions to two men regarding the manipulation of certain cases before a particular supreme court judge.
