LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday summoned singer Meesha Shafi and another through bailable arrest warrants in a case registered under cybercrime law by actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar on charges of running a malicious campaign against him on social media.

Earlier, the magistrate was informed that Shafi and Maham Javed were out of the country due to professional engagements and could not appear before the court. Their counsel filed applications for exemption from personal appearance.

Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk noted that same applications of the petitioners were already dismissed at the last hearing and bailable arrest warrants were issued.

He said without surrendering before the law they could not move other applications for exemption of their personal appearance.

“Moreover, the reasons mentioned in the applications are not justifiable, therefore, the petitions are dismissed,” the magistrate said in his order.

The magistrate issued the bailable arrest warrants of Ms Shafi and Ms Javed for Feb 19.

The magistrate also expressed dismay over the counsel of the complainant, Zafar, for not completing his arguments against the acquittal applications of suspects Ali Gul and Leena Ghani.

In the written order, he regretted that the applications were pending for long and arguments on behalf of the petitioners had already been heard but the counsel for the complainant was not appearing before the court to argue the petitions.

He said the arguments of the complainant’s counsel were also pending on the petitions of exemption from personal appearance moved on behalf of Ms Shafi and Ms Javed.

The magistrate observed that if the complainant’s counsel failed to argue on the next hearing the petitions would be decided after hearing the arguments of the FIA counsel.

In this case, Shafi appeared before the magistrate at three recent hearings held on Dec 4, 2021 and Dec 18, and Jan 7, 2022. She travelled back to her family in Canada on Jan 11.

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

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2022