LAHORE: A day after the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) registered a case against PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar for allegedly harassing television actor Momina Iqbal, the lawmaker secured interim pre-arrest bail from a Lahore court on Friday.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Irfan Ahmad Sheikh approved the bail after hearing Chadhar’s plea.

During the hearing, Chadhar appeared before the court along with his counsel, Mian Ali Ashfaq.

The judge barred the NCCIA from arresting Chadhar till June 24 and directed the NCCIA to submit the case record at the next hearing.

On Thursday, the NCCIA registered a case against Chadhar on Iqbal’s complaint under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber stalking) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, read with Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 109 (punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn, Iqbal alleged in her complaint that Chadhar, his wife and their “known and unknown associates have waged a sustained campaign of cyber harassment, stalking, criminal intimidation, blackmailing, defamation, unlawful surveillance, and threats against her and her family”.

She also alleged that after rejecting Chadhar’s marriage proposal upon discovering his existing marriage, he “retaliated with repeated threats, attempts to access her private data, sending violent content, and blackmailing via her private videos”.

“The accused (Chadhar) allegedly defamed her socially and professionally, sabotaged her 2023 marriage proposal through false information, and recently intensified threats to leak private material, harm her and her fiance, and disrupt her upcoming marriage, causing severe emotional, reputational and professional harm,” the FIR stated.

According to the FIR, the preliminary technical and forensic analysis of Iqbal’s and Chadhar’s mobile phones and other devices was carried out, which provided evidence on the basis of which a case was registered against the PML-N MPA.

Case origins

The matter garnered attention after Iqbal’s social media appeal went viral and drew the attention of senior PML-N leadership, especially Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. In her online post, tagged to the PML-N leadership, Iqbal alleged that she had been subjected to “online harassment, cyberbullying, and death threats for a long time”.

She claimed that both she and her family had suffered severe mental stress and trauma because of the alleged conduct of the MPA, whose identity she did not disclose publicly at the time.

“A member of the provincial assembly belonging to the PML-N has been threatening me for an extended period. I repeatedly reported the matter to the NCCIA and the Federal Investigation Agency, but no action was taken,” she stated.

Instead of ensuring justice, attempts were allegedly made to suppress the complaints, Iqbal claimed. “Even individuals associated with the office of the chief minister tried to discourage me and silence the issue rather than allowing a fair investigation.”

Subsequently, the PML-N’s “top leadership directed the NCCIA to immediately entertain the actor’s complaint and initiate action against the ruling party MPA if the allegations are proven”, a source had told Dawn. The source added that the CM’s Office also wanted to clear its name following Iqbal’s allegations against it.

Following these developments, the NCCIA summoned Iqbal and Chadhar on May 21. The agency’s Punjab head Muhammad Ali Waseem said the two were summoned after the NCCIA received Iqbal’s complaint.

A day after they recorded their statements, Iqbal filed an application with Lahore’s Chung Police for the registration of a first information report against Chadhar.

In her application, she alleged that the PML-N MPA had been making threatening calls to harass her and her fiance. She claimed that the lawmaker turned abusive when she refused his marriage proposal, after it transpired that he was already married to two women.

Subsequently, Chadhar began blackmailing her, she alleged, also mentioning WhatsApp messages and video calls from the suspect in her application. She further alleged that the MPA also sent the same threatening messages to her sister’s mobile phone.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz also warned in a post on X that any attempt to exert political pressure, abuse influence, or exploit a woman by threatening to release “personal content” in the case involving Iqbal and Chadhar would be met with “firm and uncompromising action.”

In a related development, the Lahore High Court granted interim protective bail to Iqbal’s husband, Hamza Habib, on May 25 in a case of allegedly threatening Chadhar.