Order to stop telecom companies from recording phone calls, data to monitor citizens

Justice Babar Sattar of Islamabad High Court ordered to stop telecom companies from recording phone calls and data for surveillance.

Justice Babar Sattar of the High Court heard the petitions of Bushra Bibi and former Chief Justice’s son Najam-ul-Thaqib in the audio leaks case.

The court said that the law should tell under which law the PTA is doing surveillance, under which section the PTA is doing surveillance.

Additional Attorney General Manoor Iqbal Dogal replied that it is being done through the legal framework.

Justice Babar Sattar remarked that under which law you are recording the calls of the citizens, tell me officially, tell me who you have given the permission, who has given the authority to record the calls of the people. ? According to you no one was authorized to phone tap, if you back down from this position now there will be consequences, the law says that the federal government can authorize it but according to you it was not authorized.

The Additional Attorney General replied that the reply was to the extent of the audio leaks of the petitioner.

Justice Babar Sattar said that if the federal government lies in the court, how will the matter proceed, reports have been submitted by other institutions including the Prime Minister’s Office, in which it has been said that no one has been allowed to do legal interception. Go, surveillance authority if given, tell where it is.

The Additional Attorney General said that if the rules have not been made in this regard, they should be made.

Justice Babar Sattar said who will make the rules under whom will the rules be made? DGISI, DGMI and other will notify the grade base officer, tell that the institutions have notified in this regard? Has the permission of the court ever been sought under this law for any secret recording? Under the law, every six months one’s permit for such secret recording will be reviewed, has any such review committee been formed till date?

Justice Babar Sattar asked the Additional Attorney General that phone recording and provision of phone recording without judicial permission are also punishable, whether the license conditions of PTA include these things or PTA has any policy in this regard. is given Has this law been followed in the last one year or not?

The court inquired that what action was taken on the illegal telephone recording? What did you do to investigate how the audio leaks went viral on social media? If something is uploaded on social media, it can track it from the IP address. They asked other organizations including the FIA ​​to track and tell them. They said that they don’t have the capacity. And what is the job of the police? Why haven’t FIRs been registered in this case yet? If a crime has been committed in a country, you will wait for someone to come and complain, then investigate. There was also surveillance of the Chief Justice, on which the answer was entered in the Supreme Court. You should also answer that the intelligence agencies have Under what law?

The court directed the Additional Attorney General to take instructions from the federal government and submit the answers to the court questions.

The Islamabad High Court restrained the telecom companies from using phone calls and data for surveillance and said that if the equipment of the telecom companies is used for illegal surveillance, they will be held responsible.

The High Court also sought records of secretly recorded conversations from the federal government.