LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday approached the Lahore High Court seeking the formation of a judicial commission to probe audio leaks.
PTI Central Punjab President and former Punjab health minister Yasmin Rashid filed the petition with the LHC through her lawyer Rana Mudassir, making the interior ministry, defence ministry and interestingly ARY News among others as respondents.
The court is likely take up the petition for hearing on Monday.
The petition stated that audio tapes of senior PTI leadership are being leaked which is a sheer violation of fundamental rights. “These acts seem as a personal attack and infringement of constitutional rights of freedom of thoughts, speech, and right to dignity and privacy but as a matter of fact these nefarious acts amount to threaten and undermine the constitutional dispensation of rule of law, democracy, democratic institutions and above all the very constitution of Pakistan, 1973.”
She said such acts amounted to depriving political leaders of their basic fundamental rights of freedom of thought and speech and right to dignity and privacy seizing them from political activities “as feeling always under threat that their mobile calls are being secretly taped by agencies to blackmail them.”
The petitioner requested the high court to form a judicial commission comprising senior judges to probe the audio leaks issue and pass orders to bar media from airing audio leaks of PTI leaders.
The petition comes days after a phone call of Dr Yasmin with the former CCPO Ghulam Mehmood Dogar was released on social media. It was only the latest in a spree of private conversations — mostly involving opposition leaders and its allies — that have been leaked.
Direct breach of privacy under privacy act
I will hold responsible all behind it.We are aware of their intentions
I have direct concern with Mr. Dogar as per SC orders he is to take charge & I want JIT investigations to continue in the face of the circus of the past few days. pic.twitter.com/WrPcOrpIPk— Dr. Yasmin Rashid (@Dr_YasminRashid) February 18, 2023
In the leaked audio, the PTI leader is speaking to the police officer asking if he had received the posting orders after he was reinstated as the Lahore CCPO by a Supreme Court bench on Friday. As per the audio clip, the police officer replied that no orders had reached him.
Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan penned a detailed letter to all judges of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan on the issue of audio and video leaks. In a detailed letter, former prime minister Imran Khan has requested the SC to immediately hear the constitutional petition filed in October last year for hearing and steps should be taken for protection under Article 14. In his letter, Imran Khan also put the eight most important questions before the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and other judges.
