It might seem that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is only now experiencing something that happened quite frequently to his predecessor, especially since he was ousted from office. Then, he and his party, without getting into the merits of the leaks’ contents, had complained of the violation of privacy that they represented. To its credit, the PTI has responded to the latest audio leaks, not by crying that they revealed corruption, but by expressing concern about the security of the Prime Minister House. The PTI had earlier reacted to a spate of leaks of telephone conversations between PTI leaders, as well as involving PTI chief Imran Khan’s wife by complaining about the violation of privacy implicit in their being made. At least one of the conversations was supposed to have taken place over the Internet, on an encrypted application.
The present leaked audio clips seem to be not so much phone conversations as recordings of conversations in a room. The content falls short of any sort of criminal conspiracy, but the fact that the Prime Minister is too scared to trade with India because of the political fallout, notwithstanding benefit that would accrue to Maryam Nawaz’s son-in-law, or that Finance Minister Miftah Ismail is unpopular with her and other party leaders, is hardly news. However, they do show that Prime Minister House has probably been bugged. That is worrying, for the intercepts are probably not all that has been released. There is also the question of who released the material. It was not an enemy intelligence agency.
There must be a thoroughgoing investigation, carried out by a joint investigation team, with that JIT also obliged to report back periodically to Parliament about their findings. If indeed such a JIT is set up, it must also be mandated to recommend measures both immediate and preventive, to end this. It should not be forgotten that the PM House also houses the PM Secretariat, which makes it the hub of all government activity. If it can be bugged by a domestic organization, what can stop a foreign spy set-up? And if PM House, why not the service HQs, or the service chiefs’ residences. What about the country’s nuclear installations? Until there are answers available to these and other questions, Pakistan’s citizens cannot rest easy that the country’s secrets are safe.
