ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Tuesday granted a two-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Information Secretary Raoof Hasan to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a case related to his alleged involvement in disseminating anti-state propaganda.
Producing the PTI leader before the court, the FIA prosecutor requested the judge to grant physical remand of the suspect for recovering devices — allegedly used for anti-state propaganda.
A day earlier, Islamabad Police took Hasan into custody from PTI’s Central Secretariat for heading a digital media cell and its alleged involvement in running anti-Pakistan propaganda.During the proceedings, the agency’s prosecutor told the court that a 30-day physical remand can be granted in an FIA case.
He then urged the court to hand over the PTI official to the investigative agency on a 10-day physical remand.However, Hasan’s lawyer Latif Khosa opposed the prosecutor’s request for physical remand.
The defence counsel questioned the need for a 10-day remand when there was “no evidence” against the PTI official.Stressing that Hasan had nothing to do with the social media [team], the lawyer inquired what investigation had the FIA carried out in the last 24 hours. “Is it a crime to use a mobile phone?” he said while further asking if the suspect had posted anything on X.
The court then granted Hasan and other PTI workers’ two-day physical remand to theFIA, whereas two female PTI workers were sent to jail on a judicial remand for 14 days.
In its first information report (FIR), the FIA stated that while probing PTI activist Ahmad Waqas Janjua, the suspect revealed that he, along with the party’s leadership and media cell members, was involved in alleged anti-state propaganda.Twelve suspects, including two women, were booked under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act’s (PECA) sections 9 (glorification of an offence), 10 (cyber-terrorism), and 11 (hate speech).
The suspects are Waqas, Hasan, Afaq Ahmed Alvi, Hameedullah, Rashid Mahmood, Zeeshan Farooq, Syed Osama, Mohammad Rizwan Afzal, Mohammad Rafiq, Syed Hamza, Farhat Khalid, and Iqra.
“...by employing various tactics on social media, [these people are] trying to hurt the integrity of Pakistan as well as sabotage the law and order situation,” the FIR, filed on the complaint of Counter Terrorism Department’s (CTD) Inspector Sajid Ikram, read.
The FIR alleges that the media cell used to run slanderous campaigns whenever a terror incident takes place. “The campaigns are to create a narrative that lives are being lost due to the policies of the government and law enforcement agencies.”