For the last five years, from when the PTI came into power back in 2018, the leakage of audio and even video clips of the politicians and judges on social media has been on the rise continuously and it reached its pinnacle when the government had to make a judicial commission.
The judicial commission to probe the audio leaks would work under the senior judge of Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faiz Isa. While Chief Jutices of Balochistan High Court and Islamabad High Court Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Aamer Farooq respectively would be the members of the commission.
The commission would have authority to find out who is behind the taping of the telephones of some important personalities, which is allowed to hire the services of a team of local or international experts. The commission has announced plans to make its proceedings public.
The commission would submit its report within one-month time, Under Section 3 of the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act 2017. With the passage of time and induction of technology in business, every political party now forms a social media cell and some of the political leaders are using these leaked audios of their opponents as a weapon, which should be stopped now as the special commission has been formed.
The first meeting of the commission was held at Supreme Court in which the convener of the commission Justice Faiz Isa said clearly that the mandate of the commission is to find out the name that who is behind the phone taping and later get it viral on social media, but taking any punitive action against anybody is not the duty of the commission.
The main question raises in the mind of every Pakistani that if the committee cannot take any action against those elements who would be found involved in the making video tapes viral on social media of the important personalities, then what would be the usage of forming the commission. If it would work in this way, the commission would lose the confidence of the people. Some people think that the commission would go against peculiar people , which could damage their reputation in the public.
Tapping the phones of political leadership is an old practice in the country and some secret agencies are doing this to know whether the politicians are not going against the national interests. It can be justified to this extent. But leaking the recorded phone calls on social media is against ethics. It means that some elements in these agencies are exceeding their legal limits either for sake of their little personal interests or to malign politicians.
The Chairman of the largest opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Imran Khan knocked the door of the highest court against the formation of the commission.
To win the confidence of the people, the commission not only finds out the hands involved behind making viral the audios but also takes punitive action against them, otherwise it will be a tiresome exercise.