ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) grilled blogger Asad Ali Toor for hours in an investigation into a social media campaign criticizing the higher judiciary after the Supreme Court ruled on the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ‘bat’ emblem, The News reported Saturday.
The FIA’s five-member joint investigation team (JIT) is investigating the facts underlying an ongoing “malicious” campaign against the top court’s honourable judges.
The JIT discovered that two bloggers, Asad Ali Toor and Imran Riaz, were ridiculing Supreme Court justices, primarily Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, JIT sources revealed on Friday.
“Asad Toor was rounded up for investigation on Friday, and his statement was recorded about his motives behind the malicious campaign against the judges,” the sources said, adding that the journalist remained with the JIT at the FIA (Cybercrime Wing), along with his counsel and human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir.
She wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that Toor and his legal team had left the FIA on Friday evening after being detained the same morning at 10:50 a.m.
“Imran Riaz has also been summoned by the JIT to join the course of the inquiry and clear his position, but he is already in the custody of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in a case lodged against him by the ACE,” the sources said, adding that Riaz would be taken into custody once the ACE’s investigation against him was complete.
The investigation’s timeframe has been lowered from 15 days to 7 days, and the JIT is expected to complete it on February 28, according to officials.
JIT was tasked with investigating mainly three specific matters. Firstly, to ascertain facts behind the malicious social media campaign to tarnish the image of the honourable judges of the SC; second, to identify and bring the culprits to book under the relevant laws and get challans presented to the relevant courts; and finally to recommend measures for the prevention of such incidents in future, the sources said.
On Friday, a local court sentenced blogger and anchorperson Riaz to jail on judicial detention in connection with the acquisition of the Tharabi Lake contract at a discounted price.
Previously, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab brought the blogger before Judicial Magistrate Imran Abid in district court and demanded a 14-day physical remand for investigations.
However, Riaz’s attorney said that the case was filed in breach of the law because there was no proof to back up the claims.
After hearing the parties’ thorough arguments, the court reserved its decision on the remand plea for a brief period of time. Later, after issuing the reserved verdict, the court denied the appeal for physical remand and sentenced the anchorperson to jail on judicial remand.
