The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday issued a show-cause notice to the director operations of the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing for "exceeding authority" during a raid at the residence of media personality Mohsin Jamil Baig in Islamabad last week and asked him to submit his response.

The notice was issued by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah while hearing a petition filed by Baig's wife seeking quashing of the first information report against her husband.

The FIA had on Feb 16 raided Baig's residence in Islamabad and arrested him after he allegedly shot at and roughed up members of the raiding team. The raid was conducted following a complaint lodged by Communications Minister Murad Saeed who contended that his reputation was "tarnished" by Baig during a TV show.

Baig had accused the prime minister of “showing favouritism” by granting an award to Saeed, with whom he has "a close friendship".

Baig has been named in two cases — one registered with the FIA and the other with Margalla police.

The first case was registered at the FIA's cyber crime reporting centre in Lahore on Saeed's complaint about his "character assassination" during NewsOne talk show G for Gharidah, in which Baig was one of the panelists.

Subsequently, an FIA team raided Baig's residence in Islamabad last week, taking action on Saeed's complaint. During that raid, officials allege Baig shot at and roughed up members of the FIA team, following which he was arrested by police and a separate case was registered against him for attacking government officials.

Read more: IHC directs Islamabad IGP to probe alleged torture of Mohsin Baig in police custody

During the hearing today, the court summoned FIA Director Cyber Crime Wing Babar Bakht Qureshi, following which he appeared before the court.

Justice Minallah grilled the FIA director, reminding him that the court had told the agency to not make arrests. "This court will take action against you. Your job is to protect people and not to restore the reputation of an elite person," the IHC chief justice remarked.

The FIA director read out the contents of the FIR on the directions of the court. Justice Minallah asked Qureshi whether the complainant had himself shared a video of the TV programme.

"The FIA reserves the right to act against anyone under the law," the Cyber Crime Wing director responded, to which the judge asked whether the FIA was above the law.

The court then asked the FIA director to read out comments made by Baig during the TV show and explain if there were any derogatory remarks.

Qureshi said the references from a book authored by Reham Khan, former wife of Prime Minister Imran Khan, were "defamatory".

Also read: Judicial inquiry into alleged torture of Mohsin Baig begins

The court reiterated its objection and asked the FIA director whether the agency's role was to ensure the protection of people or serve public officeholders.

Justice Minallah questioned the FIA official about the number of pending cases with the agency. In response, Qureshi said FIA had around 14,000 backlogs of cases.

"Have you made any arrests in these cases?" the judge questioned.

Qureshi sought the court's permission to read section 21-D (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The judge remarked that it would only invite more embarrassment to the agency and nothing else.

Justice Minallah sought a written response from the FIA director as to who had asked him to "do all this".

He remarked that political leadership and not the society was responsible for what had transpired in the case.

Meanwhile, Baig's counsel, Latif Khosa, told the court the entire episode could have been avoided had the FIA not raided the residence "illegally".

The chief justice responded: "If someone comes to my house and introduces himself as an FIA official, and asks me to come along, I will go with him."

Additional Attorney General Qasim Wadood also informed the court that section 21 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) did not warrant action against Baig.

The IHC chief justice declared the plea filed by Baig seeking his release as "inadmissible" but said it would examine the actions taken by the FIA, while the acts committed by the suspect would be looked into by a trial court.

The court also summoned Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan in the next hearing on Feb 24.

ATC extends Baig's physical remand for two days

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court extended the physical remand of Baig for another two days at the request of the Islamabad police.

Baig's counsel Khosa opposed the police's request for extension, saying the law enforcers had earlier misused the judicial remand approved by the court.

He also accused the police of not submitting medical reports of his client in the court. The court subsequently directed the complainant to submit an application in this regard, adding that the bench would look into it.

Once Baig's counsel submitted the application, the court issued a summon to the medical superintendent of Islamabad's Polyclinic and adjourned the hearing till Feb 23.

The contentious TV show

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) had on Feb 12 also issued a show-cause notice to NewsOne for airing "derogatory/demeaning remarks" about Saeed "without any editorial check" in a programme.

In its notice, the Pemra had reproduced the comments made in the programme where anchor Gharida Farooqui questioned her panelists on what was the "[real] reason" for Saeed's ministry ranking first. Baig, who was also a part of the panel, responded that he didn't know but the reason was "written in Reham Khan's book".

Another panelist, senior journalist Iftikhar Ahmed, said: "Who is unaware of the performance and the allegations against this man at the top (Saeed)?"

Meanwhile, analyst Tariq Mehmood said that some things were "self-explanatory" and asked the anchor to not prod over it since Pemra was watching.

"A book has been mentioned as well. There is nothing hidden about this that Imran Khan likes him a lot and he is a very hard-working minister, is very close to Imran Khan and has once again proved that he has left all others behind in performance. So what more do you want me to say," Mehmood said.

At this, the host, Farooqui, said she did not understand what he was talking about and asked defence analyst Lt-Gen (retd) Amjad Shoaib to clarify.

"I was saying that I did not read [Reham Khan's] book but I have definitely heard Mohsin Baig. I agree with whatever he has said and can't say anything else," Shoaib had said.