ISLAMABAD: The Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has written a detailed letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan as well as all judges of the Supreme Court with an aim of seeking enforcement of the fundamental right to privacy (article 14) and other fundamental rights of the masses in the matter of ‘unverified audio leaks’.
یکے بعد دیگر منظرِ عام پر آنے والی غیرمصدقہ آڈیو/ویڈیو لیکس کے تدارک کا معاملہ
چیئرمین تحریک انصاف کا چیف جسٹس آف پاکستان سمیت سپریم کورٹ کے تمام ججز کو تفصیلی خط
معاملے پر گزشتہ برس اکتوبر میں دائر آئینی درخواست فوری سماعت کیلئے مقرر کرنے کی استدعا کردی 1/2 pic.twitter.com/F10mnd8dgd
— PTI (@PTIofficial) February 20, 2023
In his letter, the PTI Chairman drew attention of the SC judges towards the impunity with which certain constitutional guarantees afforded to the people of Pakistan an being violated.
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He said “it is now common knowledge that for the last several months mysterious unverified audio/video clips have periodically surfaced on social media in the country purporting to carry alleged conversations between various public officials / ex-public officials and on occasion private individuals. The audio/video clips have not been verified and appear to be either deep fakes or fabricated, edited, trimmed and joined, pitted together, and cannibalized to present an inaccurate and incorrect portrayal of the alleged conversations that they purport to carry”
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Khan said the matter came to a head several months ago when certain purported conversations were leaked, the ostensible content of which suggested that conversations taking place in the Prime Minister’s House / Office were being surveilled and bugged on a systematic and routine basis. It goes without saying that the Prime Minister’s Office is a highly sensitive state installation where matters of great national sensitivity and importance arc discussed. A breach of security in this premises has a grace effect on the lives, livelihood, safety, and security of the people of Pakistan.
Narrating the ordeal of Senator Azam Swati and how his privacy was violated, He said “various ex-public officials, myself included, and even private members of the public have suffered from leaks (or release) of unverified. edited, tampered. pieced together and even fabricated conversations.”
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Citing excerpts from the article 14 of the Constitution, Imran Khan said “it was to seek enforcement of the fundamental right to privacy, as well as the other fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan guaranteed in the Constitution, that I had filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution before the Honorable Supreme Court in October 2022 titled Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi vs Federation of Pakistan on the matter of these ‘audio leaks’. Unfortunately, the case has not yet been fixed for hearing by the Honorable Court.
He went on saying that since the people of Pakistan were subject to routine surveillance and recording and that this surveillance and recording was liable to being doctored, tampered, and released in the public domain, This begged the question, under what law were the people subject to such widespread surveillance and recording, by whom?
