ISLAMABAD: Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday advised the FIA’s cybercrimes wing to strictly observe the during the course of investigation “as political parties come to power and go, but institutions stay”.

The advice was given on a petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf against the ongoing inquiry against its fundraising website, namanzoor.com

Justice Farooq asked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to continue its probe into the case, as the federal government sought time to respond to the PTI petition.

The PTI contended that after the ouster of its government, the party had set up the website namanzoor.com to collect donations from overseas Pakistanis.

Govt seeks time to respond to party’s petition

The donors, it said, could visit the website and provide their details to go to the payment page, where they could use their bank accounts or PayPal to make the payment. It said that details of these donations were being shared with the Election Commission of Pakistan in compliance of the Election Act, 2017.

The petition claimed that as the PDM government was unable to compete with PTI in the political arena, it came up with an illegal scheme to stop people, particularly overseas Pakistanis living in the UK, USA and Europe, from giving donations to the PTI.

“By stopping the donations, the [government’s] intention is to cripple the PTI financially to incapacitate it to conduct political activities and exercise its fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution,” it added.

In order to achieve this “illegal purpose”, the petition said, the FIA had begun an inquiry which was not known to the petitioner, but evidently the inquiry was about the working of the website namanzoor.com.

Justice Farooq questioned why the FIA investigators, instead of focusing on relevant facts and material, had started picking up individuals. He remarked that suspects in such cases got off scot-free becau­­se of poor investigation, prompting people to start blaming courts for acquittal.

PTI’s counsel Barrister Gohar Ali Khan asked the court to restrain FIA from taking action against the party’s leadership.

The court, however, asked the FIA to proceed strictly under the legal provisions and standard operating procedures.

The case was adjourned till Oct 27.

Harassment case

Meanwhile, the court disposed of a petition filed by PTI’s Additional Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan against his alleged harassment by FIA.

Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri restrained the FIA from arresting Mr Khan without its permission.

Mr Khan filed the petition against an FIR registered in Lahore regarding the party’s prohibited funding case, though he was not nominated in it.

The PTI leader expressed apprehensions that the FIA might drag him into the “politically motivated case” to harass, defame and victimise him.

The FIA’s representatives apprised the court that Mr Khan was neither nominated in the case nor was the investigation agency required to take him into custody.

Justice Jahangiri then disposed of the petition with a directive to the FIA to seek the court’s permission before arresting the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2022