A local court on Thursday reserved its order on the bail application of journalist Farhan Mallick in a case pertaining to allegedly uploading "anti-state" content on his YouTube channel.
Mallick, a former news director at a private TV channel, was arrested on March 20 and initially booked by the Federal Investigation Agency's Cyber Crime Reporting Centre for allegedly running a campaign by posting "anti-state videos targeting the dignitaries".
He was later booked in a second case after a judicial magistrate remanded him in judicial custody on Tuesday. He is now in the FIA custody on a five-day physical remand in the new case that pertains to alleged theft of credit card data through spoofed calls.
On Thursday, Mallick's bail application came up for hearing before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq, who reserved her order after hearing arguments from both prosecution and defence sides. The order is expected to be announced today.
She took exception to his arrest in the second case without the court's permission and issued a show-cause notice to the investigating officer, Zeeshan Awan, for failing to shift the journalist to jail as per the court order.
The court also ordered the additional director of the FIA Cyber Crime Centre to turn up in court along with a report in this regard. Defence counsel Abdul Moiz Jafferii said the FIA booked and obtained his client's physical remand in a new case in violation of the court's order that had remanded him in jail custody in the present case.
He contended that the impugned FIR accused Mallick of posting anti-state content on his YouTube channel but it had failed to point out any specific report or video that was anti-state and violated the sections enshrined in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act.
"The entire edifice of allegations levelled against the applicant is not supported by even a speck of evidence," he said, adding that the applicant's involvement and arrest in the case was based on malafide intentions.
He said that without any actual proof of damage suffered by any individual as a result of the content shared by Mallick, the impugned FIR attempted to prosecute him simply for sharing opinions, satire or critical news reports.
"The charge of Section 26-A against the applicant in the present circumstances is a stark example of vague offences under PECA 2016 being weaponized against journalists, activists and oppositions politicians, leading to arbitrary enforcement of these laws in sheer violation of the constitutional rights of the citizens," he added, requesting the court to grant post-arrest bail to his client.
On the other hand, FIA prosecutor Aijaz Kalwar argued that Farhan Mallick made a mockery of Pakistan's name and armed forces in his videos, which also attracted highly inappropriate comments. He, therefore, pleaded with the court to dismiss the bail application.