Tapped conversations

Political drama never seems to cease in our country. The latest episode has come with the leaked telephonic conversation in which PTI Chairman Imran Khan is apparently heard telling another party leader that the 2014 storming of the PTV headquarters by protestors during the party’s sit-in in Islamabad last year was “good” and something that the prime minister “deserved”. There is firstly a need to verify if the audio tape is a doctored or a genuine one. The PTI has, so far, not refuted the veracity of the audio tape. The tone, content and language used in this conversation is quite obviously unfortunate. No political leader should be condoning acts of hooliganism.

But beyond this, other issues arise. The invasion of privacy is unfortunate. No one should have the right to tap into the conversations of citizens, all the more so when they are political leaders, and use these against them. We need to know who recorded the conversation and what their purpose was. The government needs to play a part in this. After all, it could become a victim of similar tactics itself. In the past, there have been reports of certain quarters being engaged in such activities, which are essentially both illegal and unethical. We need then to get to the bottom of who was involved this time and put in place measures to prevent this in the future. The timing of the leak, many months after the casual dialogue took place, is also significant. Why was this conversation made public now? Is there some plan we are not aware of behind the action? The video confession of Saulat Mirza implicating the MQM could be seen in a similar vein. Certainly, we need to know more why such videos and audios are being released at this point in time and what more could be expected in the future. Such underhand tactics should not be acceptable. An investigation is required not only into this but into other incidents where the abuse of technology is used to spy on politicians and the information thus gathered used against them. Action in this regard must be taken promptly.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2015.

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