ISLAMABAD , May 31, 2023:The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday instructed the government to stop the special parliamentary body from proceeding against former chief justice Saqib Nisar’s son and directed it to apprise the court about the elements responsible for recording audios.
Justice Babar Sattar’s remarks came during the plea hearing filed by Najam Saqib — son of former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar — against a special committee formed by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to probe audio clips allegedly featuring his voice.
Advocate Latif Khosa, on behalf of the petitioner, told the court that the rules for the special committee would be the same as for the general committee.
The judge responded that he would have to make the concerned ministry a party to the case.
“There is no relevant ministry in this matter, but we will do so,” Khosa said.
He added: “We only challenged that the speaker and the assembly do not have the authority to look into private matters. The petition does not challenge the matter which is pending in the Supreme Court.”
“The audio leak is an alleged conversation between two private individuals that Parliament has no right to see,” he maintained.
The judge further inquired: “You have also been a governor. Tell me, who records these audios?”
“Let the parties answer first, then everything will be clear,” Najam’s counsel responded.
The petition
The petition filed by Najam on Tuesday requested the IHC to suspend the proceedings of the committee and stop it from taking any punitive action. He contended that the alleged audios breached his privacy and it was illegal surveillance. He requested the court to declare that recording a private person’s personal conversation was a violation of basic human rights.
He further 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.
The IHC registrar’s office, however, had raised objections to the petition saying that the matter was already pending with the Supreme Court. The registrar also contended that two different types of pleas could not be made in a single petition. It said, on the one hand, the petitioner had challenged the notification of the committee while, on the other hand, he also requested the court to declare the recording of audio as illegal.
Special committee
NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf on May 3 set up a special committee to investigate Najam’s audio, in which he can be heard selling a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket to a candidate of the Punjab provincial assembly, claiming that his father had to work hard to get the ticket sanctioned — according to a notification from the assembly.
Mohammad Aslam Bhootani was appointed as chairman of the committee, which includes Shahida Akhtar Ali, Muhammad Abubakar, Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Sheikh Rohale Asghar, Syed Hussain Tariq, Naz Baloch, and Khalid Hussain Magsi.