ISLAMABAD - A five-member bench of the Supreme Court will today take up constitutional petitions against the formation of Judicial Commission to probe the audio leaks.
The five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed will take up the petitions of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Abid Shahid Zuberi, SCBA Secretary General Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir and Advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi.
The petitions were filed under Article 184(3) to declare the notification and constitution of Inquiry Commission to probe into the veracity of alleged audio leaks as ultra vires to the Constitution.
Meanwhile, the Inquiry Commission has issued notices to four persons who are allegedly found having conversation in the audio leaks for May 27. They include SCBA President Abid Zuberi, senior advocate Khawaja Tariq Rahim, journalist Abdul Qayyum Siddiqui and Najam Saqib, the son of former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar. Abid Zuberi in his petition mentioned that whether surveillance of citizens of Pakistan through “phone tapping or interception” is permissible under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 and whether the same is violative of Article(s) 9, 14, 18, 19 & 25 r/w 4 thereof? He also questioned whether any undated alleged audio leaks uploaded on or disseminated through unidentified / untraceable social media accounts could be relied upon for any legal proceedings and whether the said alleged audio leaks could be enquired into through a commission formed under the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act, 2017 to determine liability of persons named in the alleged audio leaks? He stated that on 16.02.2023, three alleged snippets of audio recordings of telephonic conversations were uploaded on a Twitter account with the handle “indibell@indibell”. These 3 audio recordings were allegedly between (1) an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan with Ex- Chief Minister Punjab, Pervez Elahi, (2) Petitioner and ex-Chief Minister Punjab, Pervez Elahi and (3) a serving Judge of the apex court and Ex- Chief Minister Punjab, Pervez Elahi. He submitted that the said recordings were given wide coverage in press and media. He further said that thereafter references were filed before the Supreme Judicial Council in relation to the alleged audio recording against the judge who has been allegedly recorded in the said audio. Such references are presently pending adjudication. It further questioned what the effect of the formation of the commission by the federal government was, without taking into consideration of the provision of Article 175(3) as well as the judgment delivered in Sharaf Faridi and others, where under the judiciary stands separated from the Executive for all purposes and intents.