According to Rana Sanaullah, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political and Public Affairs, people shouldn’t have such contentious conversations in the first place that they have to worry about their calls being recorded.
“Someone should not engage in such verbal exchanges to begin with if they are concerned that their chats would be “heard,” Sanaullah stated on Wednesday on the “Capital Talk” show on Geo News.
The senior politician’s comments coincide with the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s authorization for the nation’s top spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to intercept and trace texts and calls in order to investigate possible crimes against national security.
The applicable circular, which permits a selected officer of the ISI, not less than grade 18, to trace calls in accordance with Section 54 of the Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act 1996, was approved by the federal cabinet.
The action is in line with the government’s position in favor of more stringent social media laws and coincides with the ongoing ban on X.
However, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have expressed substantial skepticism regarding the ruling.
PTI politician Salman Akram Raja voiced his opinions on the same program, arguing that no one would be secure if talks were to be “heard” based just on suspicion and that the state had no authority to bug someone’s home.
