Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan has submitted a letter to the Supreme Court, requesting that a hearing on his audio leaks petition be fixed “at the earliest possible opportunity”, a private TV channel reported. The detailed letter to all judges of the apex court including the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) was shared in a tweet on the party’s official Twitter handle on Monday. According to the letter, Imran has urged the SC to set the matter for an immediate hearing as he had filed the constitutional petition in October last year. “Unconfirmed audio/video leaks continued to surface one after another,” read the tweet.”The chief justice and honorable judges are also requested to take steps to protect the fundamental rights under the Constitution, especially the right to privacy of the citizens under Article 14,” the party tweeted. It added that Imran Khan has presented eight important questions in front of the chief justice and judges of the Supreme Court regarding the matter. In the letter, Imran noted that “constitutional guarantees afforded to the people of Pakistan are being violated with impunity” and referred to the case of
Senator Azam Swati who “suffered from the worst kind of invasion of privacy possible”. He highlighted that the unverified audio clips leaked on social media, purporting to carry alleged conversations between various public officials/ex-public officials, have “appeared to be either deep fakes or fabricated, edited, trimmed, and joined, pieced together, and cannibalised to present an inaccurate and incorrect portrayal of the alleged conversations that they purport to carry”. Further, he noted that certain leaked audios suggest that conversations taking place in the prime minister’s house and office are being surveilled.
“The prime minister’s office is a highly sensitive state installation where matters of great national sensitivity and importance are discussed. A breach of security in this premises has a grave effect on the lives, livelihood, safety and security of the people of Pakistan,” he added. “Under what floor are the people subject to such widespread surveillance and recording, by whom, to what end, under what constraints, and with what checks and balances in place? Can the conversations be recorded at any will without any lawful authority and then doctored and released? What measures have been taken over the last several months to put an end to such breaches? Are our sensitive state installations, where matters a great consequence may be debated, secure?” he questioned.
