- Let’s see what written order says and then will go for appeal: Moiz Jaferii
KARACHI: A Karachi Judicial Magistrate on Friday dismissed the post-arrest bail application of journalist Farhan Mallick in a case pertaining to running allegedly “anti-state” content on his YouTube channel.
During the previous proceeding, Judicial Magistrate Yusra Ashfaq had reserved a verdict on the post-arrest bail application of the journalist. The magistrate also summoned an additional director of the FIA for failing to comply with the court order regarding Mallick’s jail custody.
During Friday’s hearing conducted inside Courtroom 14 at City Court District East, the journalist’s legal team was expecting the bail plea to be accepted. However, after a wait for over a three-hour, Magistrate Yusra dismissed the plea, with the detailed order to be issued tomorrow (Saturday).
Mallick, the founder of media agency Raftar and a former news director at Samaa TV, was arrested on March 20 in Karachi and booked under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) as well as the Pakistan Penal Code. The next day, he was handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) custody for four days.
Talking In a media talk the court proceedings, Mallick’s counsel Abdul Moiz Jaferii said they were expecting a “positive outcome” on the journalist’s bail plea as their grounds and arguments presented during Thursday’s hearing were strong.
“Let’s see what the written order says and then then will go for appeal,” the lawyer said.
During the proceedings, the FIA director appeared in court via the rear entrance. The court ordered him to prepare an internal inquiry report on the non-compliance with court orders and submit it within 15 days.
It must be noted that the court had earlier rejected the FIA’s request to extend Mallick’s custody in the case and sent him to prison on judicial remand. However, defence counsel Jaferii moved an application against FIA before the court, stating that instead of handing over the journalist to the jail concerned, the agency illegally kept him in custody.
Ahead of the hearing, a number of journalists showed up at the City Court in solidarity with Mallick. His wife, Tazeen, was there as well, along with some members from the media agency Raftar, owned by the imprisoned journalist.
‘Don’t have high hopes from courts’
Mallick’s spouse Tazeen informed the media that currently, her husband has been kept at the FIA Cyber Crime office at Gulistan-i-Jauhar. “We are allowed to meet him … every day I take sehar and iftar for him,” she said.
“He is in high spirits because he knows he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Tazeen asserted. “Our conscience is clear.”
Regarding the court proceedings, she said she didn’t have high hopes, lamenting that every hearing began after a four- to five-hour delay.
The case
According to the first information report (FIR) dated March 20, the FIA had received a report about Raftar TV’s YouTube channel, which was “involved in running a campaign for the posting of anti-state videos targeting the dignitaries mentioned in violation”.
Mallick had been booked under sections 16 (unauthorised use of identity information), 20 (offences against the dignity of a natural person) and 26-A of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016, as well as sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Notably, Section 26A is among the provisions recently added to the Peca laws, wherein fake news is defined as any information about which a person “knows or has reason to believe to be false or fake and likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic or disorder or unrest”.
Any person found guilty of spreading such information could be sentenced to up to three years in prison or fined up to Rs2 million, or both.
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