Body formed to investigate audio leak, affidavit

The National Assembly Information and Broadcasting Committee on Monday formed a four-member sub-committee to find out details of former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar’s audio leak and affidavit of former Gilgit-Baltistan chief justice Rana Shamim.

The sub-committee includes Mian Javed Latif, Ali Nawaz Awan, Nafisa Shah and Saad Wasim.

The move came during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting held under the chairmanship of Mian Javed Latif at the PTV Headquarters.

The newly formed sub-committee will send questionnaires to former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar as well as former Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Justice Rana Shamim, all the characters of the affidavits, including audios and videos of previous governments.

It will also issue questionnaires to the characters of the recently released audio regarding the distribution of advertisements.

During the meeting, the standing committee sought a report from the Islamabad DIG on the matter of arresting member of National Assembly Akram Cheema on the orders of a senior Supreme Court judge and keeping him in custody.

Read More: ‘Affidavit’ a new light on an old case

The committee also directed the DIG Islamabad to inform it in the next meeting about the investigation into the attacks on journalists so far.

Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Minister of State Farrukh Habib could not attend the meeting.

In the meeting, the committee chairman raised the question of why former chief justice Nisar and former judge Gilgit-Baltistan Shamim did not attend the meeting despite being summoned.

“The members of parliament have been appearing before every institution in case of any allegation,” Chairman Latif said. “Parliamentarians have also been appearing in military courts.”

The committee had called Justice (retd) Nisar, former CJ Shamim, and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. He said that the committee wants to know whether the affidavit was fake. “Who made it? We need their answers.

“We don't care who benefited from this affidavit,” the chairman said, adding that they wanted institutions not to be disrespected by anyone.

“This is a matter for two chief justices … both should come and take a stand.

MNA Ali Nawaz Awan asked how many such incidents had taken place before and what action was taken against them?

At Nawaz’s suggestion, the committee chairman formed a four-member sub-committee on the audio leak Justice (retd) Nisar and the affidavit of former G-B Judge Shamim, which will send questionnaires to all parties.