An Islamabad district and sessions court on Friday remanded journalist Muhammad Khalid Jamil in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for two days after he was arrested Thursday night.
According to the FIA, the journalist was detained on charges of spreading “provocative narrative” against state institutions through social media posts. A photo of Jamil is also doing the rounds on social media, showing him holding a piece of paper with a case number written on it. ABN News, the TV channel with which Jamil is affiliated, posted a message at 11:18pm Thursday night on X (formerly Twitter), confirming that the journalist had been arrested. The first information report registered by the agency said Hussain was “found sharing and propagating highly intimidating content/tweets on social media/Twitter” (now X).
It invoked Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), which states: “Whoever intentionally and publicly exhibits or displays or transmits any information through any information system, which he knows to be false, and intimidates or harms the reputation or privacy of a natural person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to one million rupees or with both.” The FIR also included Section 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
“The accused had knowingly misinterpreted and disseminates anti-state narrative by sharing false misleading and baseless information which are also likely to cause fear in the public and may incite anyone to commit an offence against the state or the state institution or public tranquility,” it said. It added that the “accused persons including Muhammad Khalid Jamil propagated, promoted and glorified anti-state, provocative and hatred narrative against the state institutions.” The FIA, however, did not name other individuals involved in the alleged crime. The agency said such intimidating content of blaming and naming through social media accounts, is a mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between general public and state institutions to “harm the state of Pakistan”.
