Daily Times

A writ petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday seeking contempt proceedings against Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah for “ridiculing” the judiciary through an audio leak containing conversation between a lawyer and his client. Petitioner Shahid Rana contended in his petition that on February 16, Sanaullah confessed in a press conference to wiretapping a telephonic conversation between Punjab former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and his counsel, Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Shahid Zuberi.

The interior minister leaked the audio claiming that the former chief minister wanted to get a case fixed before his favourite judge in a bid to get a favourable decision, the petitioner alleged. He maintained that the conversation held between a client and the lawyer was “privileged communication fully protected and prohibited to be intercepted or stolen according to…Article 9 of Qanoon-e-Shahadat Order 1984”. The petition added that the interior minister not only taped the conversation of a client with his lawyer illegally through his subordinate public servants, but also directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to lodge an FIR against them. He requested the court to summon the Sanaullah and bring him to book in accordance with the law.