Former PM House employee detained over Shehbaz Sharif’s audio leaks: report

• Former PM House employee in custody over bugging.
• Committee formed to investigate suspect.
• Two audios of PM Shehbaz Sharif were leaked on social media.

ISLAMABAD: As the leaked audios of top leaders continue to pollute the political scene in the country, a man has been detained in connection with the audio leaks of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

A media report has claimed that a former employee of the PM House was found involved in the audio leaks of the prime minister who has now been taken into custody by a law enforcement agency.

The report stated that the detained person was one of the prime minister’s staff and a committee has been formed to investigate the suspect.

It may be recalled that the audios of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were leaked in September and October this year.

During these months, several audios, allegedly featuring government officials and PTI leaders discussing important matters at the PM House, had surfaced on social media after which questions were raised on the security of the government’s highest office.

Former PM Imran Khan had also demanded a JIT to investigate the issue of bugging the PM House.

The first tape, leaked in the last week of September, allegedly featured PM Shahbaz Sharif and a senior official. It contained a discussion regarding PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz asking her uncle for a power plant to be imported from India for her son-in-law.

While in the second audio leak, the PM was allegedly heard conversing with an unidentified person regarding the race to become the Special Assistant to PM (SAPM).

On September 25, two more audios were leaked on social media. One of them was related to a discussion about the PTI lawmakers’ resignations and the other was about former finance minister Miftah Ismail.

However, on October 11, Interior Minister Rana Sanauallah said the culprits behind the audio leaks had been identified, adding that the modus operandi of stealing those sound bites was not bugging but telephone tapping.

PTI audio leaks

The first audio related to PTI was leaked on September 28, in which Khan allegedly told his then-principal secretary Azam Khan to "play" on the US cypher.

The second PTI audio leak came to the fore on September 30, which allegedly exposed Khan's conspiracy narrative.

In it, the then-prime minister Khan, ex-minister Asad Umar, and the then-principal secretary Azam could allegedly be heard discussing the US cypher in a meeting and how to use it to their (PTI’s) advantage.

Later, the government upgraded cyber security SOPs at the PM House and issued new directives to stop this in future.