FIA told to devise guidelines for probing PECA cases

IHC says govt must dispel notion of abuse of law to stifle dissent

ISLAMABAD:

The director-general of the premier federal investigation agency has been directed to form a set of guidelines for its investigators who are probing complaints filed under the cybercrime laws in line with the orders of the Supreme Court while making special guidelines for probing journalists.

This was directed by a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, as he issued a 13-page verdict to dispose of a petition filed by an Islamabad-based journalist Rana Arshad against the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for sending him a vague notice with no date and a subsequent raid on his house.

The order stated that the notice issued to the petitioner by the FIA did not mention the date. Moreover, the entity empowered to investigate criminal offences of a digital nature is obligated to disclose sufficient information in its summons notice so that the individual knows the purpose of being summoned.

It added that FIA’s investigation officers are entitled to ensure that their actions do not breach essential and elementary principles of fairness.

The powers should not be used recklessly for other than bonafide purposes, the verdict said.

Chief Justice Minallah expressed that the petitioner was a journalist who is responsible to report facts and disseminate opinions for public information.

It stated that the overreach of power by the FIA against a person engaged in such an occupation was intolerable in a society governed under the constitution.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2020.