Pak's spy agency ISI admits tapping nearly 7,000 phones in May

Islamabad: Pakistan's spy agency ISI tappednearly 7,000 phones in the month of May, a little higher than  the number of calls it recorded in April. The information was disclosed in the Supreme Court  yesterday during the hearing of an old case regarding the  power of spy agencies to tap telephones.  

Dawn reported that Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sajid Ilyas Bhatti submitted a sealed envelope in court. After examining the document, the court stated in its order that the spy agency had tapped 6,523 phone numbers in  Feb, 6,819 in March, 6,742 in April and 6,856 in May. 

It was not revealed that whose numbers have been tapped  and what sort of information was revealed.  The classified report was furnished on behalf of the ISI  by the DAG in compliance with a May 22 direction, when the law  officer had presented another report prepared by the  Intelligence Bureau (IB) suggesting that it had tapped 5,594  phone numbers across the country. 

A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heard a 19-year-old suo motu case, initiated by  former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah in 1996.  Shah had taken notice of a device found attached with his  telephone by certain spy agencies.  Justice Saqib observed that the matter had been pending  since 1996 and that even judges and chief justices' phones  were recorded during that period. 

The judge also recalled that the court, while taking  notice of the matter, had asked to submit data on the total  number of phones tapped and to inform it under which law these  were being recorded.