SC to hear pleas against leaks body today

CJ Bandial forms five-member bench for purpose

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial has formed a five-judge larger bench to take up petitions filed against the formation of a judicial inquiry commission probing into the audio leaks allegedly involving current and former members of the superior judiciary and their family members.

Apart from the CJP as the head, the bench includes Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed.

All members of the bench are believed to be the CJP’s “like-minded” judges as the superior judiciary is divided into two sides.

The bench will commence the hearing of the petitions on Friday (today).

Last week, the federal government had formed the judicial commission to probe into over half-a-dozen leaked audio clips allegedly involving some current and former members of the superior judiciary and their family members to determine their “veracity” and “impact on the independence of the judiciary”.

The three-man judicial commission is led by SC senior puisne judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprises Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq.

However, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Abid Zuberi filed a petition in the top court against the formation of the commission, arguing that the body was in violation of articles 9, 14, 18, 19, and 25 of the Constitution.

Read Judges kick off ‘open’ probe into audio leaks

It maintained that the Constitution did not allow tapping of citizens' cell phones.

The petitioner inquired how the commission would issue an order without knowing the source of the audio recording.

It was also contended in the plea that the formation of the commission had interfered in the affairs of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

The plea added that the recently surfaced audio leaks were tantamount to influencing the SC.

The petition further maintained that the audio recordings were being released on social media accounts in a systematic manner.

It also maintained that the commission had ignored the quality of the audio recording during its proceedings.

It was argued that the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) had not been instructed to learn about the source of the audio clips.

It continued that the commission had not issued notices for the audio recording in its proceedings.

The plea asked the SC to order the suspension of the inquiry commission constituted by the government and its orders.

The petition named the federation, inquiry commission, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as its respondents.

In a related development, the Lahore High Court sought a response from the government on May 29 on a petition filed against the government-formed judicial inquiry commission.

LHC’s Justice Asim Hafeez heard the petition filed by a citizen, Amir Abdullah, against the formation of the commission and rejected his request to immediately stop its investigation into the audio leaks.

The judge observed that the notification for the formation of the commission could not be set aside without hearing the AGP’s stance.

In its written order, the judge observed that the matter was of an important nature and the court required the assistance of the AGP and Punjab advocate general to sort it out.(With input from our correspondent in Lahore)