Justice Babar Sattar of the Islamabad High Court on Monday questioned if electronic surveillance can be conducted and who was authorized to do it.
The judge posed these questions, among others, during the hearing of a case regarding multiple audio leaks. Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan appeared before the court, while PPP leader Raza Rabbani submitted written arguments in court in response to his assistance the court had sought over five questions.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is saying they have not allowed anyone to do it, Justice Sattar remarked, asking how electronic surveillance was being conducted and who was doing it.
The audio conversations from the Prime Minister's Office, of a Supreme Court judge as well as of the family of a former chief justice of the Supreme Court were leaked, the judge remarked.
“Are you saying this was done by a hostile agency?” he asked, adding that it was a dangerous decision to do this without taking the state into confidence.
The court asked if the attorney general was taking the position that these audios were recorded without government authority, saying it was important to see if this data was being misused.
“It should be determined where these audios came from and how they were leaked,” Justice Sattar remarked.
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