Interior minister urges Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice n Rana Sana says FIA to arrest Parvez Elahi after forensic audit of his audio leaks n Former Punjab CM claims he did not say anything wrong in leaked audio phone calls.

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD    -   At least three au­dio-clips allegedly fea­turing former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi went viral on the social on Thurs­day in which he could be heard telling his ‘lawyer’ to get a certain judge for hearing the case of his close aide, Muhammad Khan Bhatti.

Reacting to his audio leaks, Elahi claimed that he had not said anything wrong in the leaked audio. 

Federal Interior Min­ister Rana Sanaullah Khan Thursday asked Chief Justice of Paki­stan Umar Ata Ban­dial to take notice of two unverified audio leaks in which former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Ela­hi can purportedly be heard giving directions to two lawyers for get­ting a graft case fixed before a particular judge of the Supreme Court Justice Maza­har Ali Akbar Naqvi. He added that the Chief Justice should take no­tice to prevent an irrep­arable loss to the credi­bility of the judiciary.

Addressing a press conference where the two censored audio clips were played, the minis­ter said he had also di­rected the Federal Inves­tigation Agency (FIA) to register a case against Elahi and arrest him af­ter verifying the audio through forensic audit. He also said that the gov­ernment could also send the matter to the Chief Justice or the Supreme Judicial Council if it got further leads in the case.

The remarks of the minister came after three unverified audio clips of the former chief min­ister went viral on social me­dia. In the two clips Elahi can purportedly be heard direct­ing two known lawyers to get the Rs 460 million corruption case against his former princi­pal secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti fixed before a particular judge of the Supreme Court. In the third video, Elahi can sup­posedly be heard asking the judge that he was getting to his place to meet him.

Rana Sanaullah chided both PTI and the PML-Q by say­ing that those who entered the power corridors with the help of the establishment now wanted to use the judiciary’s shoulders. They want to make the judiciary subservient to get decisions of their choice, he added.

He said that former prime minister Imran Khan should be arrested after he failed to appear before the court to get his protective bail and the La­hore High Court rejected his bail application. He said the in­vestigation team probing a case against Khan should proceed as per the law.

In the first audio, Elahi could be heard purportedly tell­ing former Lahore High Court Bar President Jehangir A Jho­jha to get the case of Muham­mad Khan Bhatti before Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and the latter assuring he will try it.

In another audio clip, Elahi is purportedly talking to Abid Shahid Zuberi, President Su­preme Court Bar Association, giving him the same instruc­tions and stressing him to do it. “It will be alright. Do not share this with anybody,” former CM can be heard saying.

The lawyer then talks about the case of former CCPO Lahore Ghulam Muhammad Dogar and Elahi says he will talk.

In the third audio, Elahi can be heard purportedly telling the judge over phone that he is coming to his place without protocol and will leave after saying ‘salam’.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Se­nior Vice-President Fawad Chaudhry in his response said that the presser of the interior minister showed that the fed­eral government was behind the campaign of audio leaks against judges of the Supreme Court. “This is a serious viola­tion of the Constitution”.

Then government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was dismissed on this charge, he also said. 

He suggested that the Su­preme Court should summon Rana Sanaullah and fix respon­sibility in this connection.

President Supreme Court Bar Association Abid Shahid Zu­beri in a statement rejected the content of the audio clip circu­lating on social media. “I have gone through the audio record­ing and I categorically state that it is doctored,” he said. He added that he was dealing a case in the Sindh High Court about Muhammad Khan Bhat­ti, a close friend of Elahi, as a missing person and had con­versation in this regard. “This case has nothing to do with any pending proceedings in the Su­preme Court.”

In a statement regarding the audio leak, the former two-time Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi said that it was distorted as he had said noth­ing wrong in the conversation with the lawyer regarding the case of Mohammad Khan Bhat­ti who has been missing for the last 10 days. 

He said that the conversa­tion with a lawyer for the case of Mohammad Khan Bhatti has been taped and distorted. “There is nothing wrong said in the audio”, he maintained. 

In the purported audio, Ch Parvez Elahi can be heard tell­ing advocate Jahangir Chho­ja that he should manage to fix Mohammad Khan Bhatti’s case for hearing in the court of SC Judge (name withheld). 

Parvez Elahi further stated that Muhammad Khan Bhat­ti has been missing for the last ten days and his wife had ap­pealed to the Supreme Court for his release. “If a person ap­proaches the courts through his lawyers for justice, he should not be proven guilty [for this act]”, he added.

The PML-Q leader also al­leged that the leadership of PML-N was running a system­atic campaign against the judi­ciary. “We have always respect­ed the judiciary. The judiciary is the centre of people’s hopes”, he remarked, adding that the government had been blinded by revenge and wanted to im­prison all opponents on false charges. 

He also said that Rana Sanaul­lah whom he called the master­mind of the Model Town trag­edy, got started speaking in a panic. “With the help of Allah Almighty all the misdeeds of Rana Sanaullah are surfacing one by one”, he said.