Journalists Waheed, Farhan remanded

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD, KARACHI: A judicial magistrate approved a two-day physical remand for senior journalist Waheed Murad on Wednesday and handed him over to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

During the hearing, he took the rostrum, saying: “My mother-in-law is a cancer patient and has come from Canada for treatment.” He further claimed, “I was handed over to them [FIA] just 20 minutes ago.” His defence counsel, Hadi Ali, requested access to the FIR, arguing that Murad was subjected to unlawful treatment. “Police broke into his house and even assaulted his mother-in-law,” he alleged.

Another defence lawyer, Imaan Mazari, informed the court that a petition had already been filed against his alleged illegal detention. When questioned by the judge about the time of Murad’s arrest, the FIA prosecutor confirmed that he was taken into custody last night. The prosecution argued that Murad had shared a post related to a banned organisation in Balochistan and that further investigation was required regarding his social media accounts. They also requested the recovery of his mobile phone.

Mazari questioned why a journalist’s remand was necessary, asking whether the FIA had issued any prior notice. Hadi asserted: “Journalism has become a crime in this country. Journalists are being arrested to harass them.” Murad, in his statement to the court, said he was taken at 3am, blindfolded for hours, and only had his blindfold removed 20 minutes before being presented in court. The FIA has registered a case against him under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). The sections include 9 (glorification of an offence), 10 (cyber terrorism), 20 (malicious code), and 26.

Meanwhile, journalist Farhan Mallick has been remanded to the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) custody for five days in a fraud case after being presented before Judicial Magistrate Malir-I.

The FIA officials presented Mallick before the court for hearing on the new case and it subsequently granted them a five-day physical remand of the journalist. Speaking to media outside the court, Mallick’s lawyer, Advocate Moiz Jafri, said that the FIA had kept the journalist in its custody despite a court order against it.

According to Jafri, the law requires that after sending an accused to jail, authorities must inform jail officials before making an arrest in another case. Jafri further said that Mallick’s family visited multiple prisons in search of him, but he was not found in any of them. He described the FIA’s actions as arbitrary and unlawful.

He said that the detained journalist was supposed to be presented for remand yesterday, but the process was deliberately delayed. Jafri claimed that the FIA had conducted a raid yesterday and arrested the individuals named in the FIR. Based on their statements, Mallick was also taken into custody. He dismissed the charges as baseless, asserting that a false case was registered against Malik on the same day to justify his arrest.

He said that the latest case was registered at a time when the journalist was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. He further contended that the entire sequence of events — case registration, raid, and arrests — took place within a single day. The FIA had initially took the journalist into custody for allegedly violating the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) and involvement in defamation.