The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday sought the names of certified international forensic audit firms from Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) for a forensic analysis of the alleged audio of former Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nasir.
Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard arguments on maintainability of a petition seeking formation of an independent commission to ascertain the authenticity of Nisar’s alleged audiotape.
Hearing the petition of Salahuddin Ahmed, former president of Sindh High Court Bar, Justice Minallah remarked that the whereabouts of original audio clip were not even known, says a news report.
The petitioner’s lawyer, Advocate Salahuddin Ahmed, stated that they were unaware of it, and that the alleged audio conversation of the former chief justice of Pakistan should be investigated to determine whether it was real or not. “We request that an independent commission be set up to inquire into the matter,” said Advocate Ahmed.
Justice Minallah said all these matters were related to the pending appeal. “Those who have appeals have not demanded an inquiry, while your petition alleges that the benches of this court were formed under some pressure.” Responding to that, Advocate Salahuddin said this allegation was not part of the petition; in fact, the allegation had been made in the affidavit of Rana Shamim.
Justice Minallah said history was really bitter adding, ‘the judges admitted things in the past, whereas, the matter is different here’. “Was the court compromised and the bench built under pressure? Is there any small evidence related to this?” the CJ IHC asked.
He further said, ”when you say that there should be an inquiry, it will be for the judges’ part of the bench. Where does the order of the judges on the bench prove that? The order went against it,” he added.
Advocate Salahuddin argued that the main point in his petition was related to the inquiry into Saqib Nisar’s audio clip; it did not say that he was talking to any judge on the other side and that other references were added to the petition to explain the context.
He said it was not the time for us to declare someone guilty or innocent, calling it “premature”. “These things will be seen during the inquiry,” he said, adding that journalist Ahmad Noorani reported a story on Saqib Nisar’s audio clip on Fact Focus, which has not been edited as per the forensic report of the audio clip.
He read out the forensic report and told the court that he had obtained the report from the internet.
He said that the copy of the audio clip is with all the channels which took the risk of playing this audio. The channels considered it to be real and played this audio clip despite the risk of contempt of court proceedings, he said.
At this, Justice Minallah said that a lot of things come up on the internet. “What if tomorrow in the pending cases more petitions of inquiry into more internet audios come up?” “The report of the forensic agency that you are referring to has been taken from the internet and hence cannot be relied upon,” the IHC CJ said.
