Leaked conversation: Petition filed against Imran Khan, Arif Alvi in SHC

Advocate Rana Hassan requests inquiry into leaked conversation; calls for Alvi's disqualification as MNA

KARACHI: A petition was filed against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan and party leader Dr Arif Alvi in Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday to launch an inquiry into a leaked telephonic conversation where Imran praised ransacking of the Pakistan Television Network (PTV) headquarters.

In 2014, angry protesters belonging to PTI and Tahirul Qadri-led Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) stormed the headquarters of the state-owned broadcast giant and forced its transmission off-air.

The litigant for the state, Advocate Rana Faizullah Hassan, requested the court to order an inquiry into the audio-tape of the conversation held between Imran and Alvi.

Hassan also requested the court to disqualify Alvi from his post as Member of the National Assembly.

Read: PTV storming: Leaked audio tape triggers political firestorm

“Both Imran and Alvi are involved in disrupting peace in Pakistan,” he said. “The act is clearly unconstitutional.”

The plea is expected to be taken up this week for hearing.

“Good, good… this will put pressure on Nawaz Sharif to resign,” Imran was earlier heard as saying on the audiotape when Alvi informed him about the attack on PTV. He then urged Alvi to mount more pressure as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government “deserved the attack”. “You have to put maximum pressure today,” Imran added, “it is all a question of coercing the prime minister to step down before the joint session.”

Then Alvi told his chief that he has invited the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to join the protest. Imran advised him in return that he should again try to contact the MQM, on which Alvi said the party would respond after contacting Altaf Hussain.

Commenting on the leaked audio, PTI leader Alvi later admitted the voices in the conversation were genuine, but it seemed they had been joined from different conversations.

“My voice and Imran Khan’s voice seems genuine. Different words and conversations spliced together. I am a staunch supporter of privacy. I never record calls,” Alvi posted on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

He also tweeted that even to splice a conversation and to mix and match somebody’s voice was without legal authority.

Imran, however, expressed ignorance about the leaked conversation. “I haven’t heard any tape. But it is a crime to record conversations,” he said, adding that whatever he may have said would not have been wrong.