The other two suspects have not been arrested yet.
PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: Two men have been arrested and sent to Adiala Jail on judicial remand for their alleged vilification campaign against judges of the superior judiciary, in the wake of the kidnapping of barrister Ovais Ali Shah.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested Muhammad Mushtaq and Haseeb Ahmad on August 9 after the agency registered a case against four persons on the complaint of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The other two suspects, Ali Malik and Smama Ch, have not been arrested yet.
On Thursday, the arrested men were handed over to FIA for investigation and were sent to Adiala Jail on judicial remand by a duty judge.
“Haseeb Ahmad, Muhammad Mushtaq, Ali Malik, Smama Ch illegally and dishonestly with mala fide intention and ulterior motives started a campaign of vilification against the honourable judges of the superior judiciary at different levels in electronic and social media,” reads the FIR registered at the FIA cyber crime circle Rawalpindi.
The FIR says that the suspects created Facebook profiles through which they generated and uploaded material containing objectionable content meant to humiliate and defame the judges.
The FIR said that the role of two other Facebook pages reportedly linked to television anchor Shahid Masood and Zaheer Akram will be investigated.
“They will be included in the investigation after confirmation of identification and obtaining their complete particulars and IP addresses,” says the FIR.
The case was registered after the Sindh High Court Bar Association filed a constitution petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan Karachi Registry against the vilification campaign.
Shahid Masood has already distanced himself from the Facebook accounts mentioned in the FIR. In a recent Twitter post, he wrote, “There are many fake Facebook pages. I [have] mentioned [this] many times in my shows”.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2016.
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