A sessions court in Peshawar on Wednesday sentenced a man to eight years imprisonment and imposed Rs50,000 fine after declaring him guilty of harassing and blackmailing a woman and her family, DawnNewsTV reported.

The convict, Ahsan Sheraz, had created a Facebook ID and uploaded pictures of a woman and her family and then blackmailed them.

A complaint was registered with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in 2017 against the convict by Syed Mehboob, the victim's father. Following an investigation carried out by the FIA's cybercrime wing, Sheraz was taken in custody and his laptop and smartphones were also confiscated.

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Sheraz had been in jail since 2017 after his bail application was rejected by the court.

During today's hearing, the sentence was read out by Additional Sessions Judge Kulsoom Azam after finding him guilty under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016.

In March last year, a magistrate in Lahore had sentenced a man to six years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs0.7 million for harassing and blackmailing a woman online.

The convict had also been ordered to pay Rs1 million in compensation to the victim — the wife of a Pakistan Air Force officer.