KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency on Friday informed the Sindh High Court that two inquiries were underway on the complaints of actors Mehwish Hayat and Kubra Khan with regard to posting of defamatory content on social media against them.

When a two-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial took up the two actors’ petitions for hearing, the FIA filed a progress report.

The inquiry officer of the FIA submitted that during the course of the inquiry, the agency had provided a list of all such social media accounts to the focal person of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority so that the authority could block them.

Taking the progress report on record, the bench adjourned the hearing for a date to be fixed after four weeks.

On the last hearing, the FIA had also filed an identical report about Ms Hayat and submitted that her statement had been recorded and an inquiry had already been initiated by the FIA Cyber Crime Circle.

However, the PTA in its reply had stated that it had no jurisdiction to take cognizance of the matter about removal/blocking of defamatory content and asked the SHC to issue specific directions to social media platforms for such a purpose.

The PTA further claimed that in April last year the Islamabad High Court had struck down its power to remove defamatory content from social media and suggested that the petitioner might be asked to directly approach the social media platforms.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2023