ISLAMABAD    -   Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) chairman Im­ran Khan Thursday prayed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to constitute a joint inves­tigation team (JIT) or judicial commission to probe the ‘illegal’ sur­veillance, recording and release of data, includ­ing audio recordings, from the Prime Minis­ter’s Office (PMO).

In this regard, former prime minister filed a petition under Arti­cle 184(3) of the Con­stitution and cited the federation, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Feder­al Investigation Agen­cy (FIA) and Pakistan Electronic Media Regu­latory Authority (Pem­ra) as respondents.

He asked the apex court to declare that the illegal surveillance of the PMO and Prime Minister’s House and the release of the surveillance data, especially through the audio leaks, are unconstitu­tional and in violation of law. The court was also asked to issue directions to determine the authenticity of the au­dio leaks and to identify and bring to task and punish the persons responsible for au­thorising and conducting the illegal surveillance. He re­quested the court to issue a continuing mandamus to su­pervise the whole process so as to ensure that the JIT or Commission completes its task in a satisfactory manner and the illegal surveillance is put to a permanent end and appropriate action be tak­en against the culprits. The PTI further prayed to direct the government and all rele­vant agencies and authorities to take all necessary steps to prevent the release, publica­tion, dissemination, sharing, broadcast and spread of any of the surveillance data, in­cluding the further use of the audio leaks. A series of au­dio recordings have surfaced of late, allegedly featuring the leadership of the PTI and PML-N holding informal con­versations never meant to be heard by the public. Imran, who is among those purport­edly featured in the contro­versial audio clips, had said earlier this month that his party would approach courts to establish the ‘authenticity’ of the leaked audio tapes and have a JIT constituted to bring to light those responsible for the bugging of the PMO. A slew of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures — includ­ing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz and some members of the federal cabinet — were released last month.