ISLAMABAD: A court on Saturday issued arrest warrants for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Anti-Corruption Department Director Siddique Anjum, Adviser Muhammad Mosaddiq Abbasi, and YouTuber Imran Riaz Khan in connection with an alleged social media campaign targeting Special Judge Central Humayun Dilawar.
Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah issued the warrants at the request of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), which alleged that the three men were part of an organised online campaign aimed at maligning the judge.
According to a report submitted before the court, the NCCIA stated that the accused had used social media platforms to spread “defamatory and derogatory material” against Judge Dilawar, prompting the agency to initiate legal action. The report maintained that the campaign was deliberate and damaging to the integrity of the judiciary, and requested the court to issue arrest warrants to ensure the accused’s appearance in the investigation.
After examining the material submitted by the NCCIA, the judicial magistrate accepted the request and directed that the accused be arrested and produced before the court. The court also noted that a case had already been registered against them under relevant sections of the law.
The issuance of warrants follows the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) recent dismissal of a petition seeking to quash a cybercrime FIR against the same officials.
Justice Raja Inaam Ameen Minhas, while rejecting the petition, observed that the FIR could not be quashed at this stage since the challan had already been submitted before the trial court. The FIR, registered on September 11, 2024, under various sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016 and the Pakistan Penal Code at the FIA Cyber Crime Reporting Centre Islamabad, alleged that the petitioners and seven others launched a campaign on Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) to harass and defame the complainant — a relative of Judge Dilawar — and to malign the judiciary by branding the judge as corrupt.
The cybercrime case stems from a larger controversy involving Judge Humayun Dilawar, who convicted PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan in the Toshakhana reference on August 5, 2023, sentencing him to three years in prison on a complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Following the verdict, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government registered an FIR in Bannu against Judge Dilawar, his brother, and another relative, accusing them of illegal land transfers related to the Central Provincial Elite Community Residencia (CPEC Residencia).
The judge’s family claimed the land, originally acquired by their father in 1969, had been legally developed into a housing scheme under the PTI government.
Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2025