ISLAMABAD: The top court in Pakistan will take up today (Tuesday) a set of four petitions challenging the constitution of the Justice Qazi Faez Isa-led audio leaks judicial commission.
Meanwhile, one of the petitioners, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Abid Zuberi have furnished a number of orders of different high courts with a request to the top court that these documents be considered for “proper adjudication” of the present case. Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, the bench includes five judges.
On May 26, the five-judge bench stayed the proceedings of the government-appointed three-judge judicial commission to probe the veracity of alleged audio leaks. Subsequently, on May 27, the audio commission postponed its proceedings until the outcome of the top court hearing.
The petitions were moved by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, SCBA President Abid Zuberi, SCBA Secretary Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir and Advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi. All of them have requested the court to declare the constitution of the audio commission illegal.
In the fresh application, Mr Zuberi, through his counsel Shoaib Shaheen, furnished an order by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued on December 22, 2021, in which the court had held that no news channel has the right to air or broadcast any audio or video clip which has not been directly recorded by the channel or journalist themselves without prior permission of the subject of the audio or video clip and that “spy information” should not be treated as news item, especially when it affects right to privacy.
Likewise, another document contained a Supreme Court judgement dated April 5, 2022, to bring it on record that the apex court had refused to entertain an appeal against the aforementioned IHC order.
Similarly, the petitioner also furnished another IHC order passed on May 31, 2023, in which the court had suspended the summons issued by a special committee constituted by the National Assembly speaker to audit, inquire and investigate audio leaks allegedly involving Najam Saqib, son of ex-CJP Saqib Nisar.
In the order, Justice Babar Sattar had appointed Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Mian Raza Rabbani, Makhdoom Ali Khan and Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha as amici to assist the court. The IHC had also wondered about any legal framework for recording the telephonic conversations between citizens. The court had also highlighted the need to identify the legal mechanism for the grant of permission authorising the recording of telephone conversations between citizens and the safeguards adopted to ensure that to the extent that any phone calls were permitted by law to be recorded, their confidentiality was preserved and any such recording was not leaked or used for extraneous purposes.
One of the documents furnished by the petitioner before the Supreme Court was a Lahore High Court ruling passed on June 2, 2023, wherein the court held that any audio or video in the absence of its source cannot be taken as a piece of evidence.
At the last hearing on May 31, the apex court adjourned the hearing till today (Tuesday) after the federal government requested the reconstitution of the bench hearing the case. The government had asked CJP Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan to recuse themselves from the bench.
