The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday also dismissed the miscellaneous petition of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to withdraw the objection on the bench in the Audio Leaks case. A hearing was held on IB's request to withdraw the objection against Justice Babar Sattar. At the beginning of the hearing, the Assistant Attorney General said that IB wanted to withdraw the plea of objection to the bench. Justice Babar Sattar replied: “Your objectionable application has already been dismissed, you will get the order to dismiss the application when it comes. In the order, the Director General (DG) IB is notified, why contempt of court action should not be taken against them.

The order also asked who had given the authority to file the petition. You can give a response after the order”. It is pertinent to note that the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), IB, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had objected to Justice Babar and filed requests to withdraw from the audio leaks case. Petitions of PEMRA, PTA and FIA were dismissed with the penalty of Rs500 thousand each. IB had filed a request to withdraw objections after imposing fines of Rs1.5 million on three institutions.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan