An official of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency informed on Tuesday a sessions court that it found PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar guilty of harassing actor Momina Iqbal during their investigation.
NCCIA Lahore SHO Najam Bajwa shared that the investigation has been completed by the agency. He had appeared before Additional District And Sessions Judge Nusrat Ali Siddiqui during a hearing on the the pre-arrest bail petitions of the MPA and his wife, who has been named in the FIR too.
The officer also shared that the MPA’s wife has already surrendered her mobile phone to the NCCIA and the device has been sent for a forensic examination.
Iqbal’s counsel argued that Chadhar and his wife’s bail should be cancelled as they pose a threat to his client.
The judge adjourned the hearing after extending Chadhar and his wife’s bail till September 3 and directed both sides present their final arguments at the next hearing.
The couple had secured a pre-arrest bail in the case on June 5, a day after a case was registered against them. The FIR has been registered under sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber stalking) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, read with Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 109 (punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The case came into public acknowlegde after Iqbal claimed that she had been subjected to “online harassment, cyberbullying, and death threats for a long time”. She claimed that both she and her family had suffered severe mental stress and trauma because of the alleged conduct of the MPA, whose identity she did not disclose publicly at the time.
“A member of the provincial assembly belonging to the PML-N has been threatening me for an extended period. I repeatedly reported the matter to the NCCIA and the Federal Investigation Agency, but no action was taken,” she wrote.
Instead of ensuring justice, attempts were allegedly made to suppress the complaints, Iqbal claimed. “Even individuals associated with the office of the chief minister tried to discourage me and silence the issue rather than allowing a fair investigation.”
Following this, the NCCIA summoned Iqbal and Chadhar on May 21. The agency’s Punjab head Muhammad Ali Waseem said the two were summoned after the NCCIA received Iqbal’s complaint.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz also warned in a post on X that any attempt to exert political pressure, abuse influence, or exploit a woman by threatening to release “personal content” in the case involving Iqbal and Chadhar would be met with “firm and uncompromising action.”
