ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Friday called for a United Nations probe into the Pegasus scandal and called for holding India accountable for it.

“In view of the gravity of these reports, we call on the relevant UN bodies to thoroughly investigate the matter, bring the facts to light, and hold the Indian perpetrators to account,” FO spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said while commenting on reports that India used Israeli-made snooping spyware to hack the phones and computers of journalists, judges, diplomats, government officials, rights activists and global leaders.

The reports emerged after an investigation by various international media organisations on a list of thousands of numbers globally provided by Forbidden Stories, a France-based not-for-profit organisation, and Amnesty International of potential targets of surveillance by the clients of NSO, the Israeli firm that sells the spyware.

At least 1,000 numbers were target of surveillance by India. Besides domestic critics, officials and leaders, the investigation revealed that Indian government potentially targeted mobile phones once used by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistani diplomats and Kashmiri leaders. It is still not known if the hacking attempt against Mr Khan was successful.

The spokesman said Pakistan government had “noted with serious concern” the reports of spying operations that among others targeted PM Khan.

Mr Chaudhri hinted that Pakistan could raise the matter at global forums.

“We are closely following these revelations and will bring the Indian abuses to the attention of appropriate global platforms,” he said.

The spokesman said the “surveillance and spying operations” by the Indian government breached global norms of responsible state behaviour.

“Keeping a clandestine tab on dissenting voices is a long-standing textbook ploy of the RSS-BJP regime to commit human rights atrocities in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and peddle disinformation against Pakistan. The world has 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.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2021