Leaks galore

Noor Israr describes a curious phenomenon of Leaks galore

The country is in grip of Leaks galore that for the victims could be extremely devastating. The latest sensation is caused by an audio recording of the former first lady in which she is heard instructing the PTI social media organiser Dr. Arsalan to direct the media campaign towards declaring the opponents of the PTI as traitors. The string of leaks is now a continuous matter and instead of abating it has been gathering speed. The frightening aspect of this situation is that it has become a norm now and appears to be used as a potent weapon in the propaganda war raging in the country. Though most of these leaks are dubbed fabricated and concocted yet the perpetrators fervently believe in their efficacy and keep on releasing the taped conversations and images with impunity. The most worrying aspect is that a grossly illegal activity like eavesdropping, universally acknowledged to be impinging upon the basic right of privacy of human beings, is openly flouted with the probable connivance of the segments that hold considerable power in the land.

Even if one is forced to concede that recording conversations may be required for the broader purposes of state security yet leaking conversations that have no bearing on the security of the state could not be justified on any pretext. It must always be kept in mind that phone tapping is illegal and has been declared so on several occasions. It is well-known that in 1997 the Supreme Court ruled the practice as violating the dignity of an individual and their constitutional right to privacy. The functional aspect of this issue could possibly be condoned but in a very limited context such as through the Fair Trial Act 2012 security agencies are allowed to collect evidence by means of modern techniques, including wiretapping, but only for the purpose of tracking and prosecuting suspected terrorists. This limited concession has been badly misused and it is commonly known that security agencies routinely tap phones indiscriminately and then use it equally indiscriminately.

Another worrying aspect is that though the politicians are invariably the target of such illegal activity but they still try to capitalise on any new leak for political point scoring. In this context, it speaks volumes about the bankruptcy of Pakistani political discourse that it immediately pounces upon such opportunities. Moreover, this practice also underscores the weakness of the accountability mechanism imposed upon by the arbitrary forces that get a kick out of such despicable activity along with deriving perverse advantage out of it. All along, the perception of arbitrary forces has been that an arch-conservative and emotional polity like Pakistan would be quickly and easily convinced about the so-called moral degeneration of the educated class and would believe the calculated slander as real. The arbitrary forces very closely guard their activities and jealously and ferociously respond when any negative things about them become public and feeling secure in their carefully nurtured cocoon they feel free to cast aspersions on any other segment of society.

It is quite some time now that leakage of this sort is taking place and that too quite regularly. Some observers can clearly discern a sequence in such leakages and can point out to the hidden motive behind them such as the recent audio recording purported to be the tape of a telephonic conversation between PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and property tycoon Malik Riaz that was interpreted as putting the tycoon under pressure as he appeared exceedingly tilting towards former PM Imran Khan. Another leak was regarding Malik Riaz’s daughter incriminating the former first lady by mentioning that she wanted a bigger diamond in return for letting Malik Riaz’s construction venture, shut down by the government agencies, to go ahead in KP. Similarly few leaks have come out to malign Maryam Nawaz who is perceived as a potential threat to the designs and ambitions of the arbitrary forces. They partly succeeded in quieting her for some time as her twitter handle got cold indicating that she became apprehensive about more leaks to come. It therefore was clearly obvious that the leaks do serve their purpose to a great extent, fact that encourages the forces primarily responsible for carrying out this despicable act.

One crucial factor letting the leakers to go ahead with their nefarious campaign is that there is no apparent legal remedy against them as they are usually leaked from anonymous sources. People with deeper grounding in the matter are of the opinion that these leaks are aimed at causing political damage instead of creating legal hurdles simply because taking judicial action against them would entail taking on the powerful intelligence network of the country. Legal opinion also echoes this observation as it is pointed out that once government registers a case, it will definitely have to tell the courts about the source of the audio recording, as well as the authority which gave permission to tap the phone calls. This always is considered to be tricky business and the civilian forces remain cautious lest they tread on sensitive toes. This is the reason that this leakage business, though being practiced for long, has restrained both the executive and judiciary to proceed against such cases. This painful reality is evident by the failure of the judiciary even when the former chief justice Saqib Nisar became victim of a similar leak.

Though the law has empowered the citizens to seek legal remedies over the recording of their telephone conversations as it is considered a violation of their fundamental rights and privacy tantamount to defamation yet the aggrieved citizen could invoke the relevant provisions of the law only after the person or the agency who has recorded the phone calls is identified. Legal experts also point out that if someone uploads the recording of a phone call onto any social media platforms from outside of Pakistan’s territorial jurisdiction, the law enforcement apparatus of Pakistan could not take any punitive action in such cases. This probably is the catch that is employed with impunity despite the fact that country’s laws, no intelligence agency could record the telephone calls of any citizen and if any intelligence agency did so it would be considered an illegal act.

Moreover, any aggrieved citizen seeking legal remedy has to take into account that since the information recorded and subsequently leaked was of a classified nature, the case might be registered under the Official Secrets Act or other relevant provision of the Pakistan Penal Code and this is something clearly discouraging an aggrieved person from taking the matter further. Keeping in view the harmful effects of such an activity even the PTI leaders have asked the apex court to take cognisance of it and mention that the apex court had previously ruled that tapping phones during official and private conversations was unacceptable. The rattled PTI leadership challenged authorities to register a case against former first lady so that she could respond to the allegations in the wake of the audio leak attributed to her. Despite such bravado the PTI leaders are fully aware that no one will come forward to try and substantiate the authenticity of the leaked clip that is considered the basic requirement to take the matter further. TW