ISLAMABAD: A local court on Tuesday granted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) a two-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary Information Raoof Hasan and others in a case registered against them regarding allegedly spreading anti-state-propaganda.

Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah, while announcing its reserved judgment, approved the two-day physical remand of Raoof Hasan and others including

Waqas Ahmad, Afaq Ahmad Alvi, Hamidullah, Rashid Mehmood, Zeeshan Farooq, Syed Osama Wajid, Muhammad Rizwan Afzal, Muhammad Rafiq,and Syed Hamza, Farhat Khalid, and Iqra.

Earlier, the FIA produced Hasan and other accused before the court for obtaining their physical remand.

At the start of the hearing, the FIA prosecutor requested the court to grant 10-day physical remand of the accused.

He argued before the court that remand of the accused is required to recover the devices linked to the social media accounts of Raoof Hasan and other PTI workers — the accounts that allegedly were being used for anti-state propaganda.

Further investigation will be conducted after the recovery of devices of media accounts, he said.

He read out the first information report registered against Hasan and others. The prosecutor said that the case has been registered under Sections, 9, 10, and 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), he said, adding that according to the FIR, the accused have allegedly been making an anti-state narrative. Hasan spearheads a special cell that carries out anti-state campaigns on social media. The aim of the campaign, Waqas told the FIA, is to incite the people of Pakistan against the army.

Efforts were being made to instigate the public, he said.

Hasan’s lawyer and other accused Sardar Latif Khan Khosa objected to the FIA’s plea and requested to reject the agency’s application.

He told the court that the full court of 11 judges of Supreme Court had affirmed that the PTI is and will remain a political party.

Hasan was named in the case based on the statement of one accused, and that the FIA already had the devices and mobiles of the arrested PTI workers, he said, adding that the main objective of registration of these cases was just to pressure PTI.

Khosa further said that security personnel have taken into custody all records including the records of all parliamentarians of PTI. A new word “digital terrorist” has been introduced.

The word digital terrorist has been imposed on PTI, he said, adding that the central secretariat of PTI in Islamabad and Lahore have already been sealed. He said that they are trying to implicate Hasan in digital terrorism. Ali Bukhari, another defense counsel argued before the court that is it a crime to use a mobile phone. Has Hasan posted any tweets, he asked.

No bomb was recovered from Raoof Hasan and they are just talking about social media, he said, adding that what did the FIA investigated during the last 24 hours. Nothing, he said.

The court, after hearing the arguments of both parties, reserved its verdict.

He said that why FIAis requesting for physical remand.

Later, while announcing its verdict, the court allowed a two-day physical remand of Raoof Hasan and others as well as sent two women to jail on judicial remand.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024