KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Dania Shah, the third wife and widow of late media personality and politician Aamir Liaquat Hussain, in a case pertaining to leaking his indecent video on social media.

A single-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Omar Sial also restrained the applicant from posting anything on the internet, giving interviews or making public statements in any manner about the subject case or contacting any witnesses of the case.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench allowed the post-arrest bail application subject to furnishing a solvent surety in the sum of Rs2 million and personal bond in the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court.

The FIA had arrested the applicant in November last year after Dua Aamir, the daughter of the late TV anchor, had lodged a case against Ms Shah under several provisions of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

The applicant’s counsel contended that the case registered against Ms Shah was due to nothing, but malice originating due to inheritance claims.

The bench in its order said there was little doubt that the creator of such videos might very well be Ms Shah, but evidence regarding dissemination required further inquiry.

It noted that the applicant gave an interview in which she acknowledged having these clips and censored versions of such clips were shown during the interview.

She admitted that she made the clips, but denied any hand in their dissemination and said that she had sold the phone on which the clips were stored and hence she was not the disseminator, the order said and added that surprisingly, FIA never found the phone or the person it was sold to and the dissemination aspect, therefore, will be proved at trial.

The order further said, “In this case, at the end of the day, Ms Shah is, irrespective of her doings, a woman. This fact in itself entitles her to more concessions than a man in a similar situation.” “Such a concession is not made out of sympathy for the woman but as a tiny step to bring her closer to equality with men and to honour the concessions which law itself gives to a woman,” the bench noted.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2023