LAHORE: A judicial magistrate has summoned singer Meesha Shafi, issued arrest warrants of two and denied exemption from personal appearance to four suspects in a criminal case registered under the cyber crime law by actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar.

Four of the suspects — Faizan Raza, Haseemuz Zaman, Fariha Ayub and Leena Ghani — were present before the magistrate on Tuesday when their counsel filed applications seeking permanent exemption from personal appearance

Almost all of them took similar ground of living and working in Karachi being permanent residents. They said it was difficult for them to appear before the court on each and every hearing.

However, in his written order issued on Wednesday, Magistrate Yousaf Abdul Rehman rejected the ground taken by the suspects and dismissed their applications for permanent exemption.

Actor Iffat Omar, also nominated in the case, sought a one time exemption from appearance due to some personal exigency in Karachi.

The magistrate in the order issued bailable arrest warrants for Oct 6 of Ms Omar and non-bailable arrest warrants of Ali Gul Pir, who remained unrepresented.

The magistrate summoned Ms Shafi and Maham Javed through summons for the next date of hearing. He observed that a revisional court suspended the orders to the extent of submission of surety bonds of the two women suspects. “So, keeping in view the above, absent accused ladies be summoned through summons,” the order said.

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

The agency in its challan (investigation report) said the investigation established that all the suspects including Shafi posted serious/direct allegations and defamatory /derogatory content on social media against the complainant.

Correction: This story earlier stated that all suspects in the case failed to appear before the magistrate on September 7, 2021 (Tuesday). However, four of the eight suspects, including Faizan Raza, Haseemuz Zaman, Fariha Ayub and Leena Ghani, were present before the magistrate when their counsel filed applications seeking permanent exemption from personal appearance. The story has been corrected to reflect the facts. The error is regretted.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2021