ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday served a show-cause notice to the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for “exceeding authority” during the raid to arrest former senator and analyst Mohsin Jamil Baig.
The agency arrested Baig on Wednesday after a dramatic scuffle in which the man fired a pistol toward police and hit one officer in the head with the weapon, injuring him.
Baig was detained days after he appeared on a television chat show. On the show, he suggested that Prime Minister Imran Khan had shown favouritism by granting an award to a minister, Murad Saeed.
Authorities say police and the FIA went to Baig’s home on a complaint from Saeed, who is the minister of communication. In his complaint, Saeed had accused Baig of tarnishing his character.
As officers tried to arrest Baig, he pulled out a pistol and fired in their direction but didn’t hit anyone, said Mohammad Ali, a police inspector. Pictures circulating on social media showed Baig beating an officer from the agency. He was then arrested.
Days later, his wife challenged the cases registered against Baig by the cybercrime wing and the Margalla police station under sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), respectively.
Today, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, who was hearing the petition filed by Baig’s wife through the Journalists Defence Committee (JDC) of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), declared the FIA raid a misuse of authority.
“Such a role by an agency or the state in a democratic country is not tolerable,” Justice Minallah said.
Justice Minallah asked the cybercrime wing director, Babur Bakht Qureshi, to read out comments made by Baig during the chat show and explain if they featured any derogatory remarks.
Qureshi said the references from a book authored by Khan’s former spouse Reham Khan were “defamatory”.
The court reiterated its objection and asked Qureshi whether the agency’s role was to ensure the protection of people or serve public officeholders.
He then issued a show-cause notice to Qureshi and adjourned the hearing until February 24. It also summoned the attorney general in the next hearing.
“[The] attorney general should satisfy the court on abolishing the section 21(d) pertaining to this [cyberstaking] offence of PECA,” the court remarked.
Section 21(d) reads: “A person commits the offence of cyberstalking who, with the intent to coerce or intimidate or harass any person uses information system, information system network, the internet, website, electronic mail or any other similar means of communication to take a photograph or make a video of any person and displays or distributes it without his consent in a manner that harms a person.”
