Campaign against judge: IHC orders contacting X Corp’s chief legal counsel for assistance

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed its office to initiate correspondence with the chief legal counsel for X Corp to request their assistance in identifying those campaigning against Justice Babar Sattar on social media.

The court also directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to file its emergency disclosure requests (EDRs) sent to X Corp. for the data disclosure of the suspected accounts.

The IHC told the FIA Immigration Wing to carry out a forensic investigation, in coordination with the Cyber Crime Wing, into the retrieval of the passports and other travel documents of the high court judge and his family from its or the passport office’s database servers, by running checks for up to at least three months before the first post on X (formerly Twitter) appeared.

It directed the defence secretary to ensure that a more thorough report, worthy of the name of the ISI, is presented to the court before the next date of the hearing.

The high court directed the head of the National Cyber Emergency Response Team of Pakistan, constituted under the National Cyber Security Policy, 2021, to appear on the next date of hearing.Issuing a detailed order on the contempt-of-court matter against the social media campaign against IHC judge Justice Babar Sattar and the leaking of his family’s data on social media, a three-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri and Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan said the PTA, the IB, the FIA Immigration DG, the CTD, Pemra and the FBR filed their reports with the court.

It said the experts who prepared the reports would give brief presentations on their reports on the next date of the hearing.The court said the FIA Cyber Crime Wing gave an overview of their report, in which some accounts had been identified as original posters or as major re-tweeters.

The court said that it has become plainly obvious after reading the report that these are orchestrated campaigns, with the three hashtag trends in question appearing and disappearing around the same time, with some accounts participating in more than one campaign.The IHC said the FIA informed it that further information about some accounts has surfaced, which would be placed on record before the next hearing. The court said the FIA has also made EDRs to X Corp. for metadata and other account information of the aforesaid accounts.

The FIA said it would take approximately four weeks for X to respond to the EDRs, but added that the response could be more forthcoming if the process of the court was stated as the cause.

The court directed the FIA to file its EDRs sent to X Corp. for the data disclosure of the suspected accounts. It also directed its office to initiate correspondence with the chief legal counsel for X Corp to request their assistance in identifying those campaigning against Justice Sattar on social media.

The court also asked the registrar of the court to place a draft of that letter before the members of this bench in the chambers. It said the ISI report was filed by the additional attorney general (AAG), and noted in the order, not with a small degree of disappointment, that the report was rather scant. The court said that the first two pages of report attempted in an apologetic tone to explain that no further progress could be made because the X accounts had been closed.

The court said it had posited a hypothetical scenario in the context of fifth generation warfare, asking if the enemy were to launch a campaign levelling accusations of blasphemy against the president or the chief of the army staff, the ISI’s response would be a similar expression of helplessness, to which the court received a rambling reply.

The IHC said it had also asked if the ISI was 5G warfare capable, and that the court was met with blankness at the bar in response.

It further said the AAG confirmed, and so did the FIA officers dealing with immigration, that a green card is only a travel document, and its holder does not qualify as a citizen of the country that issued the green card. The court said that the falsity of the tweets and other media campaigns on this score stands acknowledged by the government.

It directed its office to obtain digital copies of each pleading, report and other written materials filed by any entity in both its original platform (Word, Excel, etc.) and a signed PDF locked against any alteration, with the password secure with the agency submitting the document, while the digital copies must be saved for quick referencing with the saving convention. It also directed its office to arrange two synchronous presentation screens for the counsels and the experts to present their documents to the court in digital form, and to make computers available in the courtroom for each member of the bench, with the case records added and updated along the way. The hearing of the case was adjourned to July 2.