ISLAMABAD - Another alleged audio leak featuring former chief justice Saqib Nisar and lawyer Khawaja Tariq Raheem came to the fore yesterday, just days after the leaked audio of a phone call between the incumbent top Supreme Court judge's mother-in-law and Raheem's wife stirred up a political storm in the country.
In the fresh purported audio leak, the former top judge is speaking to Kh Tariq about the judgement of a seven-member bench on a suo motu notice taken by the apex court in 2010 and asking him to look into the matter.
Saqib Nisar is purportedly heard telling the details of the judgment to "It is suo motu number 4 of 2010," Nisar apparently responded, "Sir, it is a seven-member judgment reported on Supreme Court 2012 page 553."
The PTI lawyer can be heard responding that he will look into it. “Whichever of your lawyers is dealing with the matter,” the voice alleged to be Nisar’s continues, “but when you will read it you will understand yourself.” “I have also seen that seven-member bench judgment where it states that it is not the judge’s discretion to take action there,” Tariq Raheem can be heard saying after assuring the former CJ once again that he will look into the aforementioned case. “If you read it carefully,” the lawyer adds, “then under clause three there is a loophole, you should have a look at that too.” Nisar apparently responds in the affirmative, saying “Yes sir, I have seen it. That is definitely our way out.” “That is the way out,” confirms the other. “Because otherwise, there was no case in the first place,” the former adds which the lawyer apparently also admits. “Khwaja sahib,” the former judge can be heard saying, “if any one of your people is willing, then use the Munir Ahmed Khan case as well. It is an absolutely clear case of contempt of court”. The other voice can be heard confirming “that is also being done.” “It is a contempt of court case,” the former voice continues, “look, after all that happened at Azad Kashmir yesterday,” he said. “Alright, thank you, sir,” responds the voice ascribed to Nisar. Notably, the suo motu case of 2010 discussed in the alleged audio leak pertains to the contempt proceedings against former premier Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani whereby the apex court had declared him ineligible to hold office in 2012. Nisar also refers to the ouster of PTI leader Sardar Tanveer Ilyas as the AJK prime minister over contempt of court. At this, the senior lawyer said that they were planning to file another contempt case.Nisar asked the lawyer to file a contempt of court case against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif via Muneer Ahmed. Meanwhile, Tariq Raheem said in the video that a verdict by the three-member bench would be out soon, in reference to the verdict issued by an eight-member bench which issued a stay on the case of clipping top justice’s powers. The three-member bench had directed the government to release Rs21 billion by April 27 for elections in Punjab, and had warned of serious consequences in case of non-compliance.