ISLAMABAD: The federal government has authorized Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to intercept phone calls and messages “in the interest of national security,” a notification issued on Monday said, adding to the already outsized role and powers of the shadowy military outfit. 

The issue of surveillance by spy agencies came into the spotlight after audio clips, including those of former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan, were released on social media in the lead-up to the February 8 general elections. Bushra and others filed petitions in the Islamabad High Court challenging the unauthorized surveillance and privacy violations. During the course of the hearings, it was revealed that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had mandated telecom companies to finance, import, and install a mass surveillance system to access citizens’ data.

“In exercise of the powers conferred under section 54 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996 (the Act), the Federal Government in the interest of national security and in the apprehension of any offense, is pleased to authorize the officers not below the rank of grade 18 to nominated from time to time by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to intercept calls and messages or to trace calls through any telecommunication system as envisaged under Section 54 of the Act,” a notification issued by the information technology ministry and dated July 8 said. 

Section 54 of the PTA Act deals with national security and authorizes such intercepts, though it does not specify the agency or the rank of officials that can issue the surveillance orders.

Omar Ayub Khan, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, called the government notification a “black law.” 

“Everything can be tapped for national security,” he told reporters. “There is no definition of national security defined. It could be anything. Remember this will be a black law.”

Created in 1948, the ISI gained importance and power during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and is now rated one of best-organized intelligence agencies in the developing world.

Widely feared by Pakistanis, it is believed to have a hidden role in many of the nuclear-armed nation’s policies, including in Afghanistan and India. The ISI is seen as the Pakistani equivalent of the US Central Agency (CIA) and Israel’s Mossad. Its size is not publicly known but the ISI is widely believed to employ tens of thousands of agents, with informers in many spheres of public life.