ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking judicial investigation into the recently surfaced audio recordings- of purported conversations between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and federal ministers- regarding the resignation of PTI MNAs from the National Assembly.
The petition also sought criminal proceedings against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his team for hatching a “criminal conspiracy”. The petition stated that the incumbent Prime Minister and his cabinet members can be heard in the leaked audios discussing a heinous strategy to outplay the petitioner from the parliamentary politics in most illegal, unlawful and objectionable manner.
It said the entire discussion surfaced in the leaked audios revolves around a “criminal strategy/conspiracy” to affect and target the PTI through piecemeal acceptance of the resignations tendered by its (PTI) MNAs on April 11, 2022. The PTI petition stated that the incumbent Prime Minister, in a media conference on Tuesday, admitted the “actuality and existence” of the referred audio leaks.
The petition further states that the Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb and Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan have already admitted the reality of the audio leaks. The petition contended that the Prime Minister and the cabinet members with the aid of National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf have violated their oath and utterly disregarded the law and the constitution.
The petition pleaded that “The admission on the part of the incumbent federal government requires stern action against the prime minister and the federal ministers”. A series of audio leaks from the meetings that took place at the Prime Minister House during the last several months have shocked the country and raised questions about the cyber security of the building.
One of the audios, which allegedly featured Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and others, contains a discussion regarding PTI’s resignations. In the audio, the PML-N leaders can be allegedly heard expressing their opinions over PTI’s resignations. They are also talking about London’s permission to accept the resignations.
Several audios have been leaked online in a span of eight days- three of the incumbent government and two of PTI. The first was leaked last Saturday, which allegedly featured Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a senior official. It contained a discussion regarding PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz asking for a power plant from India to be imported for her son-in-law.
Later on Sunday, two more audios were leaked on social media. One of them was related to a discussion about the PTI’s resignation and another was about former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail. The first audio related to PTI was leaked on September 28, in which former Prime Minister Imran Khan allegedly told his then Principal Secretary Azam Khan to “play” with the US cypher.
The second PTI audio leak came to the fore on Friday, which exposed Imran Khan’s conspiracy narrative. In the latest audio, the then Prime Minister Imran Khan, ex-Minister Asad Umar, and the then Principle Secretary Azam Khan could allegedly be heard discussing the US cypher in a meeting and how to use it in their interest.
Following the back-to-back leaks, the National Security Council (NSC) approved the formation of a high-level committee under the leadership of Interior Minister Rana Sanauallah to investigate the matter of the audio leaks. In its meeting just a day after, the federal cabinet also endorsed NSC’s decision to conduct a thorough investigation into the issue.
It may be recalled that a high-powered committee constituted by the Prime Minister to probe into the leak of informal conversations from the Prime Minister House has combed and debugged the entire premises of the PM House. A new standard operating procedure (SOP) has also been implemented at the PM House under which no staff and officer is allowed to take their mobile phone inside the building.