FIA officer acting as unofficial spokesperson suspended

Asif Iqbal 'issued an explanation' for maintaining private Twitter account, says official

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime wing has suspended one of its officials for acting as the unofficial spokesperson for the agency on the social media platform.

“Assistant Director Asif Iqbal was suspended and issued an explanation for maintaining a private Twitter account bearing CCW which stands for CyberCrime Wing. He was acting as the spokesman of the wing on his own accord without permission which is against disciplinary rules,” a statement posted by the wing’s spokesperson on Facebook reads.

A day earlier, FIA Director (cybercrime wing) Amir Farooqi had issued a notification and suspended the official, Muhammad Asif Iqbal, with immediate effect. Iqbal, having twitter handle @AsifIqbalccw, had posted a tweet in which he wrote details about the punishment of spreading fake news. “Preparation and dissemination of information about Interfaith, Sectarian or Racial Hatred on social Media is a crime U/s 11 of Cybercrime Act,” it read.

The tweet came days after an FIR was registered by FIA’s cyber crime wing against Meesha Shafi, model Iffat Omar and nine others for their alleged involvement in a smear campaign against singer-actor Ali Zafar.

Other than Shafi and Omar, Lena Ghani, Fareeha Ayub, Mahim Javed, Ali Gul Pir, Haseem Zaman Khan, Hamna Raza and Syed Faizan Raza have been nominated in the FIR.

According to reports, FIA’s cybercrime wing registered an FIR against the accused after a two-year investigation. The agency had provided the accused with more than three opportunities to defend themselves, but they failed to do so and are liable for action.

As per the FIR registered on April 19, 2018, Shafi had accused Zafar of sexual harassment on Twitter. In November 2018 Zafar had protested against the social media campaign against him to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing and lodged a complaint.

Zafar, in his application, argued that the allegations against him were made under a premeditated plan conspired by Shafi, her friend and her lawyer. Whereas,

numerous fake [social media] accounts were also created to run the ‘Me Too’ campaign against him.

The singer also provided details of various Twitter and Facebook accounts to the FIA in support of his claims.