PTI moves LHC to form judicial commission on audio leaks

Dr Yasmin Rashid terms leaks ‘infringement of constitutional rights’

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) to form a judicial commission on the audio leaks issue.

PTI Central Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid filed the petition through Advocate Rana Mudassar.

The Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, chief secretary and others, including a private news channel, have been made parties in the petition.

According to the petitioner, audio tapes of the senior leadership of the opposition party were being leaked, which was a 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 stated.

A judicial commission consisting of senior judges of the high court should be formed to investigate the audio leak issue, she requested.

Moreover, she requested the court to order the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to stop airing the leaked audios on media.

“It is most respectfully prayed that this petition may kindly be accepted and the very act of audiotape recording and broadcasting on electronic media by respondents may be declared to be in violation of the constitutionally protected rights under articles 2A, 4, 5, 9, 14, 17, 19 ie right of freedom of thought and speech, right to dignity, and privacy, right to life and freedom as well as a collective right to be an active member of political party namely PTI for establishing and maintaining rule of law and democracy in Pakistan,” the petition added.

Also read: Alleged audio clip of Yasmin Rashid, Lahore CCPO emerges

Last week, a new audio clip allegedly featuring Dr Yasmin and Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar emerged on social media.

In the audio recording, both can be purportedly heard discussing the Supreme Court's (SC) verdict from a day earlier reinstating Dogar as CCPO after suspending his transfer orders by the provincial caretaker government.

The PTI leader purportedly asks Dogar: “Is there any good news on the [Supreme Court's] order?”

To which, Dogar allegedly responded that the verdict had not been received yet. “The order is to be passed by the Supreme Court. We will receive the order as soon as it is issued by the court, our men are present there,” the man, believed to be Dogar, says in the alleged phone recording.

Dr Yasmin then purportedly added that she was only inquiring about the court’s order to find out what "their intention" was, and that party Chairman Imran Khan was "concerned" over it.

“Khan sahab [Imran Khan] was quite concerned about this [order]. I told him that, as per my information, the order has not been received yet,” the female voice added.

The male voice assured her that he had "his man" at the apex court.

Apparently referring to the reports of plans of arresting Imran, the female voice asked the Lahore police chief: “Will our night pass quietly today?”

The male voice said, “Allah will hopefully make things better.”

Following the audio leak, the PTI leader took to Twitter to announce that she would hold those responsible behind the “direct breach of privacy under [the] privacy act”.

(With additional input from News Desk)