Justice Babar Sattar highlights 'interference' in audio leak case
Pakistan
Says he was asked to back off from the audio leak case
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Babar Sattar has pointed out alleged interference by Establishment in judicial affairs.
Justice Sattar has penned a letter to IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, informing him that he was asked to back off from the audio leak case.
The case is related to the petitions filed by PTI founder’s wife Bushra Bibi and Najam Saqib, son of former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar, last year against the audio leaks.
In the letter, the IHC justice also gave reference to the case and stated: “…the Court has put on notice the heads of intelligence and investigation agencies, including ISI, IB and FIA, apart from relevant Ministries of the Federal Government and statutory regulations such as PTA and PEMRA”.
“The question before the court is whether there exists a legal regime permitting surveillance of citizens,” he asked.
Justice Sattar added that at some point during the hearing of the case, “I was delivered messages on behalf of top officials in the security establishment asking me to back off from extensive scrutiny of the existence and mode of surveillance."
The high court judge further said he paid no heed to such intimidatory tactics and did not find that such messages created a risk of substantial detriment to the administration of justice.
“The current malicious campaign’s focus on cases involving PTA appears to be an intimidatory tactic to influence court proceedings,” read the letter.
