Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday asked the federal government to inform it about “those responsible for recording audios”.
Justice Babar Sattar of the IHC made these remarks while hearing a plea filed by Najam Saqib, son of ex-CJP Saqib Nisar, against a special parliamentary committee formed by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to probe leaked audio clips.
In the petition filed on Tuesday, Najam requested the IHC to suspend the proceedings of the committee and stop it from taking any punitive action.
He claimed the alleged audio recordings violated his privacy and were an illegal form of monitoring. He asked the court to rule that it was against basic human rights to record someone’s private, in-person talk.
He said the committee formed by the NA speaker to probe the audios was illegal. The summons issued by the committee secretary without any meeting of the committee — asking Najam, his father and two other persons to appear in person — is also illegal, the petition claimed.
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According to Najam, audio recordings can only be used as evidence in a trial or an investigation if it is clear who recorded them and why. The petitioner requested that the committee be ruled unlawful by the court.
Today, the IHC, while barring proceedings against the petitioner until June 19, issued notices to the respondents in the case.
