Audio leaks case: SC suspends IHC order, stops proceedings till further orders

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday suspended the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order barring the intelligence and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) from phone tapping and data surveillance, which the latter gave in a case related to audio leaks of former first lady Bushra Bibi and Najmul Saqib, son of former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar.

The top court also ordered the high court to stop proceedings in the audio leaks case till further orders.

A two-member bench of the top court comprising Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan heard the Centre's appeal against the IHC order in the audio leaks case today.

At the outset of the hearing, Additional Attorney General Amir Rehman apprised the apex court that the relevant authorities had been stopped from phone tapping in an IHC order issued on May 29.

He further said that the intelligence agencies were unable to perform counterintelligence due to the IHC's ruling which also restricted the agencies from arresting any terrorists.

The government’s lawyer said that the high court had also stopped the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) from phone tapping and call data recording (CDR).

He added that the high court exceeded its jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution in contradiction to the top court's two verdicts.

It is worth mentioning that on May 29, IHC's Justice Babar Sattar had barred telecom companies from recording phone calls and data which disabled the intelligence and law enforcement agencies’ surveillance against criminals and terrorists.

After the May 29 ruling, the IHC gave a subsequent verdict on the Islamabad police’s plea on June 25 in which the court allowed the telecom companies to share suspects’ data with the police for post-crime probe, however, it restricted the cellular firms from facilitating LEAs with surveillance.

The two-member bench remarked that the apex court reviewed the IHC's May 29 order which was not extended in the fresh proceedings, therefore, the top court was not suspending the said ruling.

Justice Amin further questioned whether the high court ascertained the institution involved in call recordings. To this, the additional attorney general replied that it could not be ascertained so far and an investigation was underway.

Justice Naeem remarked that it was unfortunate to witness that no one wanted to know the truth about the country. He went on to say that an inquiry commission was constituted to ascertain the truth but a stay order was issued by the top court.

The jurist further observed that the top court has not yet fixed the hearing of the audio leaks' case, again. The parliament tried to know the truth but it was also stopped from pursuing the matter, he added.

Justice Naeem questioned how the truth would come forth if the parliament and the court were stopped from doing their work.

Justice Amin remarked that it could be possible that the individuals in the call recording were involved in leaking the audio conversation as every mobile phone has a recording system. He questioned whether the probe was carried out in this aspect.

Later, the SC bench issued notices to the parties in the case besides suspending the high court's June 25 order and ordered the IHC to stop further proceedings.

The hearing was adjourned for an indefinite period.

It is pertinent to mention here that the alleged audio leak case involves a call conversation between former first lady and the ex-CJP’s son.

The federal government had challenged the IHC order in the Supreme Court last month, as per The News report.

The federal government, through Additional Attorney General Anis Muhammad Shahzad, filed an appeal under Article 185(3) of the Constitution against the order dated June 25, 2024, passed by an IHC single bench.

It prayed to the apex court to grant leave to appeal against the impugned order dated 25-06-2024 by the IHC and set aside the said order.

In its petition, the Centre made Najam — an Advocate High Court — as respondent besides making the federation of Pakistan through the Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs Division, Speaker, National Assembly, Special Committee, appointed by Speaker, Assistant Director/Secretary Committee, at National Assembly Secretariat and others as Proforma respondents.

The federal government submitted that an alleged audio conversation of Respondent No 1 with his friends regarding managing party ticket for contesting the election of the provincial assembly seat against certain monetary consideration became viral on social media along with the electronic media.

Upon becoming the alleged audio leaks viral and discussion thereon in the National Assembly, the NA speaker took notice of the same and constituted a special committee vide circulation dated 02-05-2023 to audit, inquire and investigate the petitioner’s alleged audio leaks, it submitted.