-Shireen Mazari says party will not sit quietly if audio of Imran Khan’s calls leaked
-Alleges government of violating SC order, calls on top Court to take Suo-Motu notice
-Adds conspiracy handlers afraid of Jalsas
-Demands forensic testing of Bushra Bibi’s leaked audio
-Fawad rubbishes Asif Khawaja’s claim of PTI apologizing to US Ambassador Donald Lu
By Anzal Amin
ISLAMABAD: PTI warned Monday that if Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s phone calls with his principal secretary Azam Khan were leaked, it would not sit quietly.
“Ansar Abbasi sahab, in a blog, has said that an audio of former prime minister Imran Khan’s telephone call on a secure line with his principal secretary Azam Khan will be leaked,” Mazari told journalists while addressing a press conference alongside PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry.
The former minister’s presser came after alleged audio of Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi emerged in which she can be heard instructing the Focal Person to PTI Chairman on Digital Media Dr Arsalan Khalid to run trends against their rivals declaring them as traitors.
Mazari said that if such audio is leaked, it will be a violation of the official secrets act as the conversation between a prime minister and his principal secretary is protected under the law.
“If a journalist leaks this, they are not only violating Article 14, they will also be in violation of the official secrets act. Beware, we will not sit quietly if this happens,” he said.
The PTI senior vice president also alleged that the incumbent government was involved in tapping phones, which she said, is a violation of a Supreme Court order. In the verdict issued in the late 1990s, the court had said that an individual’s privacy under Article 14 was not just restricted to physical boundaries of home or work but also extended to public places.
Mazari said: “Claims are being made that the government is tapping phones. The Supreme Court put an end to phone tapping in the Benazir Bhutto case. But despite the Supreme Court’s order, phones are still being tapped.”
Casting aspersion on the motives behind phone tapping, the PTI leader called on the apex court to take a suo-motu notice on the matter as the move violates the top court’s order.
Commenting upon the leaked audio of Bushra Bibi and Dr Arsalan Khalid, Mazari said that “no substantial” conversation was there and “the actual problem here is of phone tapping”.
“One wonders how much did the US help in tapping the phones,” Mazari said, as she claimed that the “conspiracy” against the PTI chairman was coming to the fore. Moving on, the PTI leader said that the “handlers” of the alleged conspiracy have become afraid of the party’s massive power shows across the country.
The PTI has been holding back-to-back rallies in different cities as it refuses to accept the coalition government, claiming that it has come into power through a United States-backed conspiracy.
Mazari said that the government now faces uphill tasks on several fronts, as it is already entangled with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revive the stalled loan programme.
“The government is in trouble as the IMF is calling for accountability for corruption,” the former human rights minister said, as Pakistan continues to struggle in its bid to renew the programme. Mazari said that the “neutrals and the government” could not find evidence of corruption against Khan.
Meanwhile, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry lashed out at Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday for claiming the party had approached US official Donald Lu — whom ex-premier Imran Khan accuses of playing a part in his ouster — for forgiveness.
Days earlier, Asif claimed the government had obtained evidence that the PTI sought to apologise to Lu, who is the US assistant secretary of state for central and south Asia.
He doubled down on that claim in a tweet, saying that the former ruling party was imploring the US to “forgive and forget and let bygones be bygones”.
“If their pleas are accepted, then they will chant ‘long live the US’. If not then, they will go back to hurling abuses,” the defence minister said. “The formula for [dealing with] institutions inside and outside the country is the same,” he added.
Responding to Asif’s claim at a press conference in Islamabad, Chaudhry asked Asif whether he had gone deaf when Imran was giving his “policy statement in front of a gathering of tens of thousands of people”, referring to the PTI’s rally at Parade Ground on Saturday. “Did you have cotton in your ears that you could not understand what Imran was saying?”
He said that the PTI wanted good relations with all countries but would not allow any country to decide “who would rule Pakistan”. “We cannot give this permission. We maintain relations on the basis of equality,” he said.
In March, the former premier, while he was still in office, had claimed that the opposition’s no-confidence motion against him was the result of a “foreign conspiracy” because of his external policy, and that funds were channeled from abroad to oust him.
Later, PTI leaders told journalists that they based their claim on a cable that former Pakistani ambassador in Washington sent to Islamabad on March 7, detailing the conspiracy. The cable included details of Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan’s meeting with Lu at the Pakistan Embassy.
