PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Monday suspended a call-up notice issued by National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), Peshawar circle, to a lawyer, asking him to appear in an inquiry about his alleged sharing of ‘anti-state’ content on social media.

A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Wiqar Ahmad issued notices to federal interior secretary, NCCIA director general and relevant inquiry officer, seeking their response to a petition filed by Advocate Tariq Shah alias Tariq Afghan.

The petitioner has requested the court to declare as illegal the impugned call-up notice issued to him on Sep 1 and also restrain the respondents including NCCIA from taking any adverse action against him on the basis of the notice.

He sought directives of the court for the respondents to strictly proceed in accordance with law and the Constitution of Pakistan, ensuring the petitioner’s fundamental rights under articles 4, 9, 20-A, 14, 19 and 25 of the Constitution.

Furthermore, he sought declaration of the court to the effect that the actions of the inquiry officer were malicious and arbitrary. He also requested the court to issue directives to ministry of interior and NCCIA to initiate departmental probe against the inquiry officer for sabotaging rules and regulations and abusing his power.

A panel of lawyers including president of PHC Bar Association Aminur Rehman Yousafzai, Sajeed Khan Afridi, Barrister Huzaifa and Sangeen Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that he was lifetime member of PHCBA and Peshawar Bar Association and a political worker presently serving as secretary of Youth Affairs of Awami National Party.

They said that the petitioner was also a human rights defender and was entitled to protection of law, security of person and fair trial guaranteed under different constitutional provisions.

They stated that the impugned notice was issued to the petitioner, whereby an inquiry was initiated purportedly under Section 11 of Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016, read with Section 160 of Code of Criminal Procedure Code.

They said that surprisingly, the so-called complainant in the notice was described merely as a ‘source report,’ which couldn’t in law the status of a complainant. They contended that it was a settled principle of law that initiation of a cognisable offence must be based on a complaint by a specific aggrieved party or identifiable source.

The lawyers said that the complaint miserably failed to disclose any cause of action, violation or content posted by the petitioner. They argued that in the absence of prior initial scrutiny of complainant, no inquiry could be initiated by NCCIA.

They said that the impugned notice vaguely alleged that the petitioner had shared “anti-state contents” on social media but failed to disclose the nature, text, date, time, or platform of the alleged contents, thereby leaving the petitioner in the dark.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2025