KARACHI: A sessions court on Monday granted post-arrest bail to former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA Alamgir Khan in a case pertaining to his alleged involvement in propaganda against “the state and its institutions on social media”.

The Cybercrime Reporting Centre of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked the former MNA under sections 9 (glorification of an offence) and 10 (cyber terrorism) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, read with Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIA, a report received from a source alleged that Alamgir Khan on his official X handle @AKFixit was “involved in propaganda against the state and its institutions”.

The FIA also claimed that Alamgir was allegedly “spreading fake news” on his official social media accounts and using derogatory language about the state.

The FIR stated that during the investigation, after technical analysis, it was found that the activist was allegedly involved in “propaganda against the state and its institutes”.

“Upon conducting the technical analysis of this account numerous posts were found that are against the state. These posts include derogatory language and incitement to harbouring public hatred against respectable institutions,” the content of the FIR said.

The FIA said that the case was registered after getting “evidence” against Alamgir, which revealed that he had “tarnished and damaged the image of Pakistan’s respectable institutions by uploading fake news against them, thereby causing harm to the reputation of our beloved country and its organisations at the international level”.

After the registration of the case, the FIA official arrested Alamgir in this case while he was in jail as his surety bond was cancelled from the Anti-Terrorism Court after his condonation application was dismissed.

On Monday, after hearing defence counsel Nazeer Ullah and the state prosecutor, District and Sessions Judge (East) Chaudry Wasim Iqbal granted post-arrest bail to Alamgir against a surety bond of Rs500,000 without touching the merits and demerits of the case.

In its release order, the court directed the superintendent of the Central Prison to release him if he was not required in any other case.

Alamgir has obtained bail from all cases, specifically May 9 violence cases in which the court had earlier cancelled his bail bonds and issued a non-baiblable warrant.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2024