LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday dismissed with cost a petition of singer Meesha Shafi and others seeking quashment of an FIR under cyber crime law on a complaint of actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar on the charge of running a malicious campaign against him.

Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh dismissed the petition while announcing his verdict that was reserved on Dec 14, 2021. The verdict would be released later.

The petition was filed by Ms Shafi, Maham Javed, Iffat Omar, Fareeha Ayub, Haseemur Rehman and Syed Faizan Raza. The petitioners had also assailed the validity of section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (Peca) as being in violation of fundamental rights of the citizens protected under the Constitution.

The petition said the FIR was an abuse of process and a violation of the petitioners’ right to a fair trial under Article 10-A of the Constitution. It argued that the section 20 of Peca was unconstitutional as it gave the investigating agency unfettered powers to prosecute individuals for actions already penalised under two different statutes.

The petition asked the court to quash the FIR lodged by the FIA and also declare the section 20 of Peca void for being contrary to various provisions of the Constitution.

The FIA lodged the FIR under section 20 of Peca and section 109 of Pakistan Penal Code against nine 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.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2022