Future Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa adjourned the hearing of a commission to investigate the audio leaks which allegedly involved senior judges and their families a day after CJP Umar Ata Bandial’s order to stop all proceedings.
However, during the hearing today, Justice Isa, who was heading the commission, raised questions on the decision handed out yesterday.
Commenting on one of the key issues raised in the petitions filed in the SC yesterday, the judge observed that privacy always belongs to the home.
“One cannot peep into someone’s house; however, there are CCTV cameras on the streets, are they also against privacy?” he asked.
He said that the commission was doing nothing that would be considered a breach of anyone’s privacy.
Defending the commission, he said it should, at least, be determined who was releasing the audios and whether they were real or not.
He further said that there is talk of giving money to a judge in an audio leak, but the investigation has been stopped.
“It is written in the oath that I will perform my duties according to the constitution and law,” he said.
“This inquiry commission has been formed under a law — the Commission of Inquiry Act,” he further remarked, adding that people have to do certain things in life that they do not like.
Further adding that the judges have to conduct such “painful investigations”, he said: “If this commission was not allowed under oath, I would have excused myself.”
After this, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz attacked CJP Bandial for stopping the investigation of the audio leaks. It is pertinent to mention that one of the many audio leaks allegedly features Bandial’s mother-in-law talking to a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member’s wife.
“Bandial deserves to be punished for making a mockery of the law and making a spectacle of the judiciary to save his family”, Maryam said in a tweet.
