Leaks probe

A national security issue

Interior minister Rana Sanaullah has chosen to somewhat downplay the matter of audio recordings of the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior PML(N) leaders, stating that the private conversations did not necessarily take place at Prime Minister’s Office and only an inquiry, which has been ordered, could determine that. That is certainly not how the PM is looking at this problem, terming it a ‘very serious lapse’ at a presser yesterday, calling a meeting of the NSC and constituting a high-level committee to conduct a probe. The recording apparatus used seems to be a bugging device rather than a phone tap, which raises a number of pertinent questions that are likely to have some very dangerous and uncomfortable answers. How long has the bug been in place? Are there multiple ones in different rooms? How did they get there in the first place? There are reports of a much larger cache of recordings being out there and the data is being used to blackmail the government for money. It’s therefore possible that similar leaks, possibly involving senior politicians, bureaucrats and heads of important state institutions, come to the fore later. PM Shehbaz Sharif rightly pointed out that this incident will have far reaching diplomatic consequences as foreign officials who regularly visit PMO to discuss sensitive matters will hesitate to hold such meetings going forward.

Former PM Imran Khan was of course bound to make political use of these audio leaks, being the government’s primary opponent. Apart from incorrectly accusing Mr Sharif of facilitating imports from India which are banned, he went after the Chief Election Commissioner, even though he cannot be heard in any of the recordings leaked so far. The government must realize that until and unless there is a thorough investigation conducted by a high-powered independent JIT to ascertain what exactly happened, who is responsible and the scale of the breach, confidence in the security apparatus of the country will remain shaken. That the recordings are unlikely to be of the conventional nature, ones that are periodically released to damage the reputations of politicians, makes this matter much worse as the government and intelligence agencies no idea who is behind it.

Editorial
Editorial
The Editorial Department of Pakistan Today can be contacted at: [email protected].

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