PM House staff leaked audios for money: Rana Sanaullah
Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed that the audio leaks controversy, which compromised the cyber security of the Prime Minister House (PMH) and Prime Minister Office (PMO), had been resolved and that no “enemy intelligence agency” was involved as staff did it for money.
His statement came at a time when former prime minister Imran Khan, one of the primary characters in the audio leaks, announced that he would approach court to investigate the matter.
“The controversy has been resolved and there was no evidence of involvement of foreign intelligence agencies in the saga,” Sanaullah said.
The federal minister further said that some staff members of the Prime Minister House have been identified, and they did it for money.
Rana Sanaullah added that a ‘small’ recording device was installed in the prime minister’s office to record telephonic conversations and informal conversations.
The interior minister clarified that the results of the investigation will be shared with the courts through in-camera briefing.
According to the interior minister, there is no problem in making this investigation report public, but the final decision in this regard will depend on Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the federal cabinet and the National Security Committee (NSC).
Surprisingly, the government had set up three separate investigation and monitoring committees to investigate the audio leaks.
One team included officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) while the other included officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to find out how US cypher involved in the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan. However, the third team to oversee the investigation was the monitoring committee formed under the chairmanship of the interior minister.
Although Rana Sanaullah confirmed the involvement of some people in the leaks, he did not confirm whether any arrests had been made.
Earlier in the day, media reports claimed that two people, belonging from Rawalpindi and South Punjab, arrested for bugging and phone hacking of Prime Minister House (PMH) and handed over to intelligence agencies for further investigation.
However, this has not been officially confirmed by the government or the concerned authorities.
