Islamabad High Court raised questions over the legality of audios being leaked through surveillance and whether this constitutes a breach of person’s rights in a case filed by former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar’s son.

The written order for the judgement by Justice Babar Sattar was released on Thursday with a question on who had legal authority to record phone calls and if permitted, who is responsible for making sure that citizen’s rights are not violated.

“To the extent that recording of phone calls is permitted, which public authority or agency is authorized to do so, how is the right of a citizen to liberty and privacy to be balanced against the interest of the State in recording phone calls or undertaking surveillance and which agency is vested with legal authority to undertake such balancing exercise?” Justice Sattar wrote.

He also asked that if the tapping of phones was shown to be illegal, who would bear the responsibility for the encroachment of citizen rights that would eventually emerge.

“In the event that there is no legal sanction to tap phones, record telecommunication between citizens or undertake surveillance, which public authority or agency is to be held liable for such surveillance and encroachment over the right of citizens to liberty and privacy and/or release of illegally recorded private conversations to the public?”

The case had been filed by Saqib Nisar’s son Najam-us-Saqib against summoning orders issued by a special parliamentary committee set up to investigate audio leaks.

Justice Sattar asked for a report to be submitted to explain if there is a legal framework for recording calls between private individuals and aslo asked which agencies have the technology to do such recordings.

He also asked whether it was within the scope of a parliamentary committee to summon and investigate such leaks. Justice Sattar issued orders for appointment of Aitzaz Ahsan, Makhdoom Ali Khan, Raza Rabbani and Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha as amici in the case.