If Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan is an Indian agent, the official secrets act does apply on him. But in case he’s not, then who decides what’s sensitive and what’s not if not the sitting prime minister of the country, says legal expert Abdul Moiz Jaferii.
Talking on Naya Daur TV’s flagship show ‘Khabar Say Aagay (Beyond the Headlines)’, Jaferii said that Imran Khan hadn’t misplaced the decoding method of the cipher, he had just made the contents of the missive public, which should be his discretion as the prime minister of the country.
Responding to another question, the senior lawyer said that if there’s someone who actually deserves to be tried under the official secrets act, it is former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and his spymaster Lt Gen Faiz Hameed.
“We should be asking them under what law they had been interfering in political matters. It is good that Islamabad High Court’s chief justice has sent them notices; it’d be interesting to see what happens on the next hearing”, he added.
Discussing the Supreme Court hearing of Practice and Procedures Act case on Monday, Abdul Moiz Jaferii said that there’s no disagreement on the point that the Chief Justice’s authority needs to be regulated, the problem here is that if we accept the argument that parliament can regulate these powers, it might also start encroaching on other powers of the apex court in future.
“Justice Munib Akhtar believes that if the parliament is considered the competent authority on regulating the procedure of making the roster, then parliament, and not the judges of the court, will become the Masters of the Roster”, he added.
Senior journalist Hassan Ayub Khan disagreed with Jaferii’s opinion that Justice Munib Akhtar’s arguments were sound.
He also revealed on the show that Dawn News had not stopped PTI leader Sadaqat Ali Abbasi’s interview from being aired. “The interview had been recorded for Monday and it will be run on Dawn News today”, he said.
His report later turned out to be correct when the PTI leader’s interview with anchor Adil Shahzeb was run on the channel in which he blamed his former leader Imran Khan of masterminding the May 9 attacks on military installations.