A four-member sub-committee has been formed by the National Assembly Information and Broadcasting Committee on Monday for the purpose of investigating details of former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar’s audio leak and affidavit of former Gilgit-Baltistan chief justice Rana Shamim.
The sub-committee comprises Mian Javed Latif, Ali Nawaz Awan, Nafisa Shah, and Saad Wasim.
The decision was made during the meeting of the Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting which was held under the chairmanship of Mian Javed Latif at the PTV Headquarters.
The sub-committee will send questionnaires to former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and to the former Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Justice Rana Shamim, all the characters of the affidavits, including audios and videos of previous governments.
It will also issue questionnaires to the characters of the recently released audio regarding the distribution of advertisements.
The standing committee during the meeting sought a report from the Islamabad DIG regarding the matter of arresting a member of National Assembly Akram Cheema under orders from a senior Supreme Court judge and keeping him in custody.
The committee further instructed the DIG Islamabad to provide details pertaining to the investigation into the attacks on journalists so far in the next meeting.
Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Minister of State Farrukh Habib were unable to attend the meeting.
In the meeting, the committee chairman inquired why former chief justice Nisar and former judge Gilgit-Baltistan Shamim did not attend the meeting despite being summoned.
Chairman Latif responded, “The members of parliament have been appearing before every institution in case of any allegation”. He added, “Parliamentarians have also been appearing in military courts.”
The committee had called Justice (retd) Nisar, former CJ Shamim, and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. He said that the committee wants to know whether the affidavit was fake. “Who made it? We need their answers.
The chairman remarked, “We don’t care who benefited from this affidavit”. He added that they wanted institutions not to be disrespected by anyone.
“This is a matter for two chief justices … both should come and take a stand”.
MNA Ali Nawaz Awan inquired how many such incidents had taken place before and what action was taken against them?
At Nawaz’s suggestion, the committee chairman formed a four-member sub-committee on the audio leak Justice (retd) Nisar and the affidavit of former G-B Judge Shamim, which will send questionnaires to all parties.
