LAHORE: A sessions court on Friday suspended a judicial magistrate’s order with respect to submission of surety bonds by singer Meesha Shafi and another in a criminal case under cyber crime law registered on the complaint of actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar.

The magistrate had on March 27 last given an opportunity to Shafi and Maham Javed to attend proceedings of the criminal case and directed them to deposit surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.

Both challenged the order for being illegal.

The petitioners’ counsel argued that the magistrate had erred in the law by requiring appearance in person instead of allowing the petitioners to be represented by their pleader. The requirement of the law was the appearance of an accused either in person or through a counsel/pleader.The court was requested to set aside the impugned order and allow the petitioners to be represented through their pleaders.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Hamid Hussain suspended the impugned order and summoned the investigating officer on April 19.

The FIA had lodged the FIR under section 20 of the Pakistan Electronic Crime Act and section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code against nine people allegedly for running a smear campaign against the complainant on social media.

The challan (investigation report) filed by the agency said the suspects posted serious/direct allegations and defamatory/derogatory content on social media against the complainant.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2021