ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday granted pre-arrest interim bail to two PTI Members of National Assembly in Sindh House storming case.

IHC single member bench comprising Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri after preliminary hearing on the bail petitions of Fahim Khan and Ataullah Niazi granted interim bail to both the accused till April 26 against surety bonds of Rs50,000 each.

Advocates Faisal Hussain Chaudhry and Ali Bukhari represented both the petitioners.

The lawmakers were nominated in the FIR registered in connection with storming of Sindh House when some dissidents of PTI were present there.

Meanwhile, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah disposed of a PTI petition filed against alleged harassment of some social media activists by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The PTI’s legal team comprising advocates Faisal Hussain and Ali Bukhari and others appeared before the court.

FIA’s newly appointed Director Cyber Crimes Wing Humayun Bashir Tarar was also appeared before the court in compliance with the court order.

Justice Minallah reminded Tarar that the FIA had submitted a standard operating procedure (SOP) for inquiry on social media complaints.

Justice Minallah said there are separate offences in the law that deals with defamation and incitement.

The court was told that the case was not related to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) since the suspects were booked for terrorism.

The investigation agency said that the accused were facing charges of creating and disseminating concocted and fake audios of retired generals.

Advocate Faisal distanced the PTI from the anti-judiciary and anti-establishment rhetoric and expressed possibility that some people might have been using the PTI’s flag to upload controversial posts.

He, however, requested the court to restrain the FIA from harassing the family members of suspects who might intentionally or unintentionally have disseminated the critical posts.

Justice Minallah directed the FIA not to harass the families of the suspects and also directed FIA director general to depute focal persons for hearing the grievances of PTI’s legal team.

IHC chief justice asked the petitioner to approach the court again anytime in case of threat to liberty of any member of their party.

The petitioner is an MNA. Interestingly, the petitioner in order to establish his case relied upon the recent judgment of the IHC that had declared the controversial amendments to Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) through Presidential Ordinance and Section 20 of the Act which had criminalised the defamation as unconstitutional.

The petition has asserted that the powers vested under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 are being abused.

The petition alleged that with the change of regime, the PTI has been targeted on behest of their political opponents. Therefore, an onslaught has been unleashed upon the party workers, especially the social media users who openly support PTI.

It further alleged that many social media activists belonging to PTI including (but not limited) Dr Arslan Khalid, Azhar Mashwani, Mohammad Waqas, Salar Sultanzai, Wasif Kazmi and many others along with their families have been harassed on behest of the ruling party and threatened by the FIA officials of dire consequences.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2022