Journalist Junaid Sagar Qureshi was booked on Saturday under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 over a ‘provocative and false’ video statement, according to the police.
The complainant, ASI Tariq Mumtaz saw the video on WhatsApp, as per the police.
In the video statement, Junaid Sagar allegedly claimed that a dumper ran over a woman in the jurisdiction of Sir Syed police station as a result of which the public became enraged and attacked the police with stones. He further maintained that a station house officer along with two other policemen were injured during the incident, according to the first information report (FIR).
According to the statement, it was found upon verification that no such incident involving the police was reported and the news of a woman being run over was found to be false as well.
It continued that the journalist was spreading provocative and false information and an FIR was registered against him under Section 21 of PECA (2016).
PECA, since its introduction in 2016, has been widely criticised as a “black law” created mainly to punish dissent. In the eight years since its enactment, it has been used extensively against politicians, journalists, rights activists, and even ordinary political workers.
The National Assembly in January passed a controversial amendment bill to the country’s cybercrime laws amid a walkout by PTI lawmakers and journalists from the proceedings.
Qureshi has become the latest journalist to face Peca charges. On March 20, journalist Farhan Mallick, the founder of media agency Raftar and a former news director at Samaa TV, was arrested in a case pertaining to running allegedly “anti-state” content on his outlet’s YouTube channel. He was booked booked under Peca as well as the Pakistan Penal Code.
A few days later, journalist Waheed Murad, who works with Urdu News, was produced before an Islamabad court by the Federal Investigation Agency, which had booked him under Sections 9 (glorification of an offence), 10 (cyber-terrorism), 20 (malicious code) and 26A (punishment for false and fake information) of the Peca.
Earlier this month, a police officer was arrested in Karachi under Peca for using “derogatory remarks” against President Asif Ali Zardari.
