Karachi: A District Court issued notices on Saturday to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a request for bail of the journalist Farhan Malick in a case related to the alleged anti-state content on its YouTube channel.
The suspect through his lawyer submitted an application to the district and the Judge of East sessions after a judicial magistrate had dismissed his bail statement after arrest.
The applicant asked the court to revoke the order of the magistrate and release him on bail.
Representing the applicant, the lawyer Abdul Moiz Jerferii argued that the challenged FIR housed by the FIA was simply an expedition of fishing to conjure a case against the applicant in an abuse of PCA laws, since the applicant did not have a link with illegalities detailed there and the entire building of the level accusations against him was not supported even by an evidence of evidence.
Judge issues the FIA for April 3; FIR only a fishing expedition to fit the journalist under the laws of Peca, the court said.
He also said that it was an established law that the bond should not retain as punishment, especially in the instantaneous case in which there was absolutely no incriminating material against the applicant before the court.
The lawyer also argued that the protection against retrospective punishment was provided in article 12 of the Constitution, since no law will authorize the punishment of a person by a law or omission that was not punishable by law at the time of law or omission.
He argued that the Charges of FIR challenged against the applicant under section 26-A of Peca and the investigation began in November 2024, when section 26-A did not exist, which caused its insertion in the FIR to legally challenged legally empty due to retrospectivity.
The district judge issued a notice to the FIA with the Directorate to arise and advance in the arguments on the request for bail on April 3.
Posted in Dawn, March 30, 2025
