{"id":53552,"date":"2024-01-28T19:33:11","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T19:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/social-media-campaign-against-top-judiciary-being-probed-as-per-law-says-info-minister\/"},"modified":"2024-01-28T19:33:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T19:33:11","slug":"social-media-campaign-against-top-judiciary-being-probed-as-per-law-says-info-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/social-media-campaign-against-top-judiciary-being-probed-as-per-law-says-info-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media campaign against top judiciary being probed as per law, says info minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi on Sunday said the joint investigation team (JIT) \u2014 formed earlier this month to probe a \u201cmalicious social media campaign\u201d against Supreme Court judges \u2014 was functioning in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n

On January 16, the interior ministry had constituted<\/a> a five-member joint investigation team to \u201cascertain facts behind a malicious social media campaign\u201d against Supreme Court judges.<\/p>\n

The panel \u2014 formed under Section 30 (power to investigate) of the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016 \u2014 was convened by the additional director general of the Federal Investiga\u00adtion Agency\u2019s (FIA) cybercrime wing, according to an interior ministry notification.<\/p>\n

The JIT was formed as Pakistan\u2019s premier legal bodies came to the aid of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and the Supreme Court against the backdrop of a \u201csmear campaign\u201d that erupted on social media soon after the Jan 13 judgement<\/a> \u2014 when the apex court upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan\u2019s decision to revoke the PTI\u2019s iconic electoral symbol, the cricket bat, and declare its intra-party polls \u201cunconstitutional\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the information minister had said<\/a> that authorities had identified around 500 social media accounts involved in running a \u201cmalicious campaign\u201d against the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn investigation is underway. We are monitoring hundreds of accounts, and action will be taken against them,\u201d he had said, adding that these accounts were being operated from both within and outside the country.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Saturday had taken suo motu notice<\/a> of the alleged harassment of journalists by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against the backdrop of the campaign against the judiciary. The CJP also constituted a three-judge SC bench that will take up the matter on Monday.<\/p>\n

Some of the journalists who have been issued notices, according to what is being circulated in the social media, include Siddique Jan, Matiullah Jan, Saqib Bashir, Asad Ali Toor, Paras Jahanzeb, Iqrarul Hassan, Shaheen Sehbai, Adeel Raja, Sabir Shakir, Jibran Nasir, Azhar Mashwani, Imran Riaz, Arif Hameed Bhatti and Sara Taseer.<\/p>\n

During today\u2019s press conference, Solangi said the JIT was formed on January 16 to probe the anti-judiciary campaign on the social media. He said the JIT\u2019s first meeting held was on January 17 while the second was convened on January 23, adding that an investigation into the alleged social media campaign was still under way.<\/p>\n

He said that so far 600 accounts were investigated, adding that as many as 100 inquiries were registered. Solangi said notices were issued to 110 individuals, including 32 journalists, and 22 politicians and political workers.<\/p>\n

The notices to the individuals were served in accordance with the law, Solangi said brushing aside reports regarding the harassment of journalists.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the legal process regarding the inquiry and investigation. \u201cSimply visiting the FIA office does not lead to automatic arrest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The minister also denied allegations of a \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d against journalists, saying that no individual had been apprehended since the JIT was formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the JIT was established, there has been a substantial reduction in the campaign of making allegations,\u201d he added. Solangi said the law would take its course against those involved in running a campaign against the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about criticism rather it is related to character assassination and ridiculing [of the judiciary],\u201d he said in response to a question.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has been done against the judges of the apex court during the last couple of days on social media, it does not come under the pretext of criticism,\u201d he said, adding that there should be a fine line between the criticism and ridiculing someone.<\/p>\n

FIA Director General Ishaq Jahangir, who was also present at the press conference alongside Solangi, said that issuing a notice provided individuals with an opportunity to clarify their position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no need to panic, and our actions are in accordance with the law,\u201d he assured, noting that not every notice would result in the registration of a first information report (FIR).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi on Sunday said the joint investigation team (JIT) \u2014 formed earlier this month to probe a \u201cmalicious social media campaign\u201d against Supreme Court judges \u2014 was functioning in accordance with the law. On January 16, the interior ministry had constituted a five-member joint investigation team to \u201cascertain facts behind a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/2820443781e80e6.png?r=214314","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}