The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in its report, has maintained that it “has no technological capacity” to ascertain the source of release of information on social media platforms, the Islamabad High Court order issued on Saturday said.

The order was linked to the previous hearing of the petition against the alleged audio leak between lawyer Latif Khosa and former first lady Bushra Bibi. The case would be heard in February.

“Let the Intelligence Bureau also conduct an inquiry and analysis to identify the social media accounts used to release and circulate the illegally recorded voice call and the social media accounts that shared such voice call in view of time stamps of sharing,” it said and asked the IB director general to file a report in three weeks and also appear in person on the next date of hearing.

The court wanted to have a briefing on who can surveil citizens of Pakistan and how such surveillance was affected and whether the state has the ability to counter illegal surveillance.

In the seven-page order, Justice Babar Sattar wrote that the court deemed it essential to seek the assistance of journalists on the role of the media while publishing private conversations and videos that may have been acquired through illegal means and how the right of citizens to freedom of speech and freedom of information and free press was to be balanced against the right of an individual to dignity.

The court expressed its intention to appoint Mazhar Abbas, Javed Jabbar, and one journalist nominated by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists to assist the court in the aforesaid question.

While taking in view the leaked audios released in the recent past, it said that the position of the federal government that that the state has no ability or capacity to determine how such recordings take place and who recorded them “is truly shocking”.

The court said that it had no option but to undertake strict and searching scrutiny of the matter to uphold the fundamental rights at stake.

“Let the matter be fixed for 19.02.2024. Meanwhile, the injunctive order will continue till the next date of hearing,” it said.