PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Monday wrote a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial and other Supreme Court judges, and sought “enforcement” of the fundamental rights of the public — including the Constitution’s Article 14 (fundamental right to privacy) — in connection with a series of private telephonic conversations of political leaders that have surfaced online over the past few months.
The letter comes days after a phone call of PTI Central Punjab president Dr Yasmin Rashid 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.
In the letter dated Feb 19, Imran lamented that various private conversations — featuring “ex-public officials, myself included, and even private members of the public” — had been leaked, suggesting a breach of security and a violation of the Constitution.
The PTI chief said it was “now common knowledge that for the last several months mysterious unverified audio/video clips have periodically surfaced on social media in the country purporting to carry alleged conversations between various public officials/ex-public officials and on occasion private individuals”.
He added that those “audio/video clips have not been verified and appear to be either deep fakes or fabricated, edited, trimmed and joined, pieced together, and cannibalised to present an inaccurate and incorrect portrayal of the alleged conversations that they purport to carry”.
Audio leaks
In September last year, a slew of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures — including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and some members of the federal cabinet — were released.
The content of the recordings appeared to be informal conversations in the Prime Minister’s Office — as opposed to recorded phone conversations.
First, a recording of PM Shehbaz surfaced where he was discussing with an unidentified official the possibility of facilitating the import of Indian machinery for a power project that was a concern of Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law, Raheel.
Further recordings surfaced a day later, which were shared on social media by several PTI leaders, concerning former finance minister Miftah Ismail and the resignations of PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly.
One clip purportedly features a conversation between PML-N Vice President Maryam and the premier about Miftah, wherein a voice thought to belong to the former says he “doesn’t know what he is doing” and wishes for the return of PML-N stalwart Ishaq Dar.
A second clip allegedly concerns a conversation between the prime minister, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Ayaz Sadiq about the resignations of PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly.
A third clip purportedly features a conversation between Maryam Nawaz and PM Shehbaz regarding the return of former army chief retired Gen Pervez Musharraf.
PM Shehbaz had termed the surfacing of audio leaks a “very serious lapse” and announced that a high-level committee would be constituted to probe the matter.
At the same time, the premier had also said that Imran’s audio leaks were “an irrefutable endorsement” that the PTI chief was the “biggest liar on the face of the earth”.
More to follow
from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/WIjdfeE
0 Comments