April 14, 2022 – An FIR was registered against a man in Lahore after he was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday for allegedly running a smear campaign online against Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Pakistan Army.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with DRM, the suspect was arrested by a team of police officials in a raid conducted at his residence on Sabzazar Multan Road. He is facing charges of producing and circulating derogatory content against the army chief on Twitter and WhatsApp. The allegations are said to have been confirmed at the time of arrest when the suspect’s phone was confiscated and he could not justify his social media activities through his accounts linked to the alleged vilification drive against the army.
The suspect was booked under Section 505 pertaining to “public mischief” of the Pakistan Penal Code. It criminalises the publication and circulation of material “with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquillity”.
According to a report recently published in Dawn, the suspect has been remanded into physical custody of the FIA for two days by the court.
The FIA conducted raids across Punjab on Tuesday and detained several men from Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad. Arrests were also made in Karachi and Islamabad. While the FIA referred to the suspects as “belonging to a political party”, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar claimed in a tweet that the arrested men were from the PTI.
Petition challenging the harassment of pti social media activists has been finalized and will be filed in high courts tomorrow morning.
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) April 12, 2022
Since the removal of PTI’s Chairperson Imran Khan from Prime Minister’s Office through a no-confidence vote on April 10, hashtags targeting the Pakistan Army, Supreme Court, and joint opposition have been dominating the trends panel on Twitter. Millions of tweets centred on the “imported government” narrative publicised by Imran Khan have taken over the platform, with thousands of others aimed at newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).
At the 79th Formation Commanders’ Conference, held at the GHQ Rawalpindi on April 12 and presided over by COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa, a statement was made regarding the continuing smear campaign against the army.
“The forum took note of the recent propaganda campaign by some quarters to malign the Pakistan Army and create division between the institution and society.”
