LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Friday discharged a case of “hate speech” registered against TV anchor Imran Riaz Khan by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and ordered his immediate release.

The FIA produced the BOL News anchor before Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk to seek his physical remand.

Advocate Mian Ali Ashfaq, on behalf of the anchor, opposed the request for the remand, and argued that the FIA registered the case without a complaint from the supposedly aggrieved person.

He said the agency accused the anchor of inciting people against former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, who filed no complaint with the agency.

After hearing the arguments, the magistrate discharged the case against the anchor and directed the FIA to release him.

The FIA had arrested the anchor at the Allama Iqbal Airport from where he was to go to the UAE.

The officials told him that his name was on the blacklist, and subsequently he was arrested and handed over to the FIA cyber crime wing, which booked him in November last.

The FIR included various sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes 2016 and the Pakistan Penal Code regarding “hate speech and defaming state institutions, especially the army.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2023