Listening posts: Some 5,594 phones under surveillance, apex court told

Court asks for details about phones tapped by agencies in past three months

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Friday that the agency is tapping some 5,594 phones around the country.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sajid Ilyas Bhatti told the court that the IB wiretapping records had already been submitted in court in a classified report on behalf of the agency in compliance with the apex court’s March 18 order.

The bench told Bhatti that the sealed report had not been opened. Hearing the 19-year-old suo motu case on March 18, a three-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had directed the DAG to furnish the court with a concise statement within three weeks regarding the law, if any, under which tapping phones is permitted.

The court also sought the “names of departments/agencies that are tapping phones across the country” as well as the “number of phones being tapped by every department/agency”.

The bench has asked only for the number of phones being tapped. The details of the numbers and people whose calls are being monitored need not be filed.

During Friday’s hearing, Justice Nisar asked DAG Bhatti to explain under which law 5,594 phones were being monitored.

He told the court that the spy agencies were tapping phones under section 24 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, section 5 of the Telegraph Act of 1885 and the Investigation for Fair Trial Act of 2013.

Bhatti also explained the entire procedure: the official intimates the interior minister, who then seeks permission from a judge.

The bench raised the question whether or not the same procedure had been followed in cases of all the phones being monitored.

Justice Nisar said it was a matter of fundamental rights, adding that the court wasn’t asking the agencies to provide details of the parliamentarians and judges whose phones were being monitored.

He said the court would decide later if the laws under which the phones were being tapped should be declared void, because they were in violation of articles 8 and 14 of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the bench has taken exception to the fact that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) didn’t submit a report in this matter.

The DAG told the bench that perhaps it wasn’t possible for the ISI to disclose the total number of phones being monitored. He said that according to the agency, they monitor phones on emergency basis.

However, the bench asked the DAG to inform the ISI to cooperate with the court and submit a written report, adding that the agency could provide data of the phones tapped in the past three months. The hearing of the case has been adjourned until June 3.

In 1996, then chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah took notice of phone monitoring by intelligence agencies after a suspicious device was found connected to his phone.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2015.