Skip to main content

US blogger appeals judge’s FIR order

ISLAMABAD: US blogger Cynthia D. Ritchie on Thursday filed an appeal against the directive of a court to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to proceed against her in connection with the case of defaming former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on social media.

On June 15, additional district and sessions judge Mohammad Jahangir Awan had on a petition filed by Pakistan Peoples Party leader Raja Shakeel Abbasi directed the FIA to register a criminal case against Ms Ritchie.

Advocate Imran Feroz Malik, counsel for Ms Ritchie, filed the appeal against the judge’s order before the Islamabad High Court.

He contended in the petition that the sessions judge “has ignored the fact that under the FIA laws, registration of an FIR is not mandatory, it’s always subject to the result of an inquiry, and the FIA has been vested with the power to refuse to register the FIR if during inquiry the information is found to be false, hence an order directing the FIA to register FIR is otherwise against the express provisions of law, hence it is liable to be set aside.”

Mr Malik pointed out that the FIA had initially “discarded [the complaint] on the ground of locus standi [right of audience] as the complainant was not an aggrieved person within the meaning of Prevention of Cyber Crime Act, 2016”, adding that even then the sessions judge directed the FIA to proceed with the registration of an FIR.

Complainant Abbasi had taken the stance before the sessions judge that since Ms Ritchie “passed extremely derogatory remarks” against Ms Bhutto, the FIA did not entertain his application seeking registration of an FIR against the blogger.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2020



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2YOmd8H
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Imple­mentation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma
Post a Comment
Read more

Young girl’s tragic story makes her symbol of Yemen war

Buthaina Mansur al-Rimi’s life has changed drastically since last year — orphaned in Sanaa, the little girl controversially ended up in Saudi Arabia for medical care and has just returned to Yemen’s capital. Her entire immediate family was wiped out in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s government, using an explosive device Amnesty International says was made in the US. Images of Buthaina’s rescue and a picture of her swollen and bruised at a hospital trying to force open one of her eyes with her fingers were beamed worldwide. That international fame saw her become something of a propaganda pawn in the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels and Saudi media. “I was in my mother’s room with my father, sisters, brother and uncle, the first missile hit, and my father went to get us sugar to get over the shock, but then the second missile hit, and then the third,” she says. “And then the house fell,” adds the little girl, who says she is eight. It was the
Post a Comment
Read more