Pakistan asks UN to probe Pegasus spying scandal, bring Indians to book

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday condemned in the strongest possible terms India’s state-sponsored, continuing and widespread surveillance, and spying operations in clear breach of global norms of responsible state behaviour.

“We have noted with serious concern recent international media reports exposing Indian government’s organised spying operations against its own citizens, foreigners as well as Prime Minister Imran Khan, using an Israeli origin spyware,” Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri stated.

He was responding to the media queries regarding India’s use of Israeli spyware -- Pegasus – to hack the phones and computers of journalists, judges, diplomats, government officials, rights activists and global leaders, including PM Imran Khan.

The spokesperson said keeping a clandestine tab on dissenting voices was a long-standing textbook ploy of the RSS-BJP regime to commit human rights atrocities in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) and peddle disinformation against Pakistan.

The world had seen the true face of the so-called Indian democracy, when the reports of EU Disinfo Lab, Indian Chronicle, surfaced earlier last year, he added. The spokesperson said, “We are closely following these revelations and will bring the Indian abuses to the attention of appropriate global platforms.”

In view of the gravity of these reports, we call on the relevant UN (United Nations) bodies to thoroughly investigate the matter, bring the facts to light, and hold the Indian perpetrators to account,” he added.