Yasmin Rashid to move court against ‘audio leak’

LAHORE: Pakistan Terhreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Yasmin Rashid has announced to move court against the audio leak, purportedly featuring former Punjab health minister and Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Talking to journalists, the former Punjab health minister criticised ‘some quarters’ for recording and leaking audios, saying that they have made the country a ‘banana republic’.

Yasmin Rashid announced that she was filing a petition in Lahore High Court (LHC) against the ‘invasion of privacy’, saying that they cannot tap anyone’s calls. “They are weaking the country with such measures”, she added, without naming anyone.

She further criticised the government over an assassination attempt on chairman of ‘world’s six largest political party’ – Imran Khan. “[Prime Minister] Shehbaz Sharif and [Interior Minister] Rana Sanaullah are involved in the attack on Imran Khan,” she alleged.

The PTI leader also lambasted the government for delaying in announcing election date, saying that as per the Constitution, the authorities were responsible to hold polls within 90 days of dissolution of assemblies.

Earlier in the day, another audio recording, purportedly that of former Punjab health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and former Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, who was recently reinstated by Supreme Court (SC) was emerged.

In the audio clip, available with ARY News, the former Punjab minister can allegedly be heard talking about reinstatement orders with CCPO Lahore Dogar.

The audio leak comes a day after the Supreme Court reinstated Ghulam Mahmood Dogar as the CCPO after suspending his transfer order made by Mohsin Naqvi led interim Punjab govt.

“Imran Khan is concerned about your reinstatement,” a woman, believed to be Yasmin Rashid, can be heard speaking to another person believed to be CCPO Lahore. “I had told Khan sahab that orders were yet not received,” she said in a telephonic conversation.

In the alleged clip, the person believed to be Ghulam Dogar, flagged signatures of judges on post carrying orders as the reason behind the delay. The man assures the woman that he had his man [sitting] at the apex court.

It is pertinent to mention here that Dogar, as the Lahore CCPO was at the centre of a tussle between the federal government and the then-Punjab government under Chaudhry Parvez Elahi last year.