On Wednesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was told by Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan that no intelligence agency had been permitted to tap conversations.
This he revealed during the hearing of a petition filed by Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi calling for action against leaked conversations, in one supposedly between her and PTI leader Latif Khosa.
December 6, the ex-first lady came to IHC and insisted that this recording deprived her of dignity and privacy as guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution. The application which was put in the IHC through Khosa named principal secretary to the prime minister and secretaries of defense and interior as respondents.
At a previous hearing, IHC’s Justice Babar Sattar had requested reports from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the director general; from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA); and other concerned authorities regarding this leak. He also ordered the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to submit a report and response on how an illegally recorded private conversation could be shown on TV channels.
On the first day of this hearing, AGP Awan introduced a report prepared in the Prime Minister’s Office. He stated, “The PMO understands quite clearly that the ISI and FIA are not to record any conversations.”
Awan said the FIA had to find out who made the recording. He said, “The FIA is obeying court orders and approaching telecom companies. For this purpose, the agency will need to obtain relevant internet protocol addresses.”
The AGP declared that if any agency is recording conversations, it’s illegal. Awan said the ISI had stressed that obtaining reports from social media platforms was a key aspect of moving forward with the investigation. In this regard, Justice Sattar noted in the PMO report that ISI had said that it could not trace where the audio got leaked from. He then asked why the agency would file a report through the Ministry of Defense.
The AGP answered that the agency should have filed a report through the PMO. However, Pemra’s counsel told the court that TV channels could not broadcast private audio leaks. So what action is Pemra taking? Justice Sattar asked. The lawyer said that Pemra had issued directives prohibiting such conversations from being televised. He stated further that the matter had been forwarded to the authority’s Council of Complaints, and they would decide accordingly.
At that, Justice Sattar asked whether Pemra worked as a regulator. he asked, “Have you ever given orders to TV stations in any other case of this kind?” The judge also asked if Pemra was trying to avoid involvement since it had already directed the matter to the Council of Complaints. The audio leak TV channels broadcast throughout the day, he said. Disgraceful!
Said Justice Sattar, in this lies the need for examination concerning freedom of expression and privacy. He said that it was the state’s duty to maintain this balance. The judge then ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to make a full report on this matter and instructed the FIA and others to file their answers again. Justice Sattar says, if you want to create a show then do so, and now it is up to the federal government how they will run things; otherwise, we’ll have local and international advisors appointed by court staff.
The agency was also asked to verify any news that the IB had been legally empowered to do tape recordings. Awan assured the judge, that I’ll investigate this and get back to court.
Justice Sattar emphasized the importance of this matter and promised that it would be taken seriously. The hearing was subsequently adjourned.
The leaked conversation:
When the clip aired on social media, a voice of Bibi hints to her lawyer that Imran’s sisters were not happy with her for choosing him. According to the clip, Bibi said that she will hand all cases delayed over at Khosa’s. And she reportedly said that Imran’s sister had complained that Khosa misbehaved with her as well.
The voice, believed to be of the former first lady also revealed that Imran’s sisters were not pleased with her comment when she stated openly at one point that they feared he was likely to come a cropper in jail.
In this conversation, Khosa said he never misbehaved with the sisters and only told them to let him fight the case alone.
