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Journalist Asad Ali Toor was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday in connection with allegations of a \u201cmalicious campaign\u201d against the superior judiciary in the aftermath of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to deprive PTI of its iconic \u2018bat\u2019 symbol before elections.<\/p>\n
Human rights lawyer and Toor\u2019s counsel Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir confirmed his arrest to Dawn.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n She said the journalist had arrived at the FIA\u2019s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Islamabad earlier in the day to \u201cdemonstrate his positive intent, answer a summons notice issued to him on Saturday and join the inquiry about the campaign against the judiciary\u201d.<\/p>\n She said the team went to the FIA office after acquiring an order from the Islamabad High Court, which instructed the agency to not harass the journalist but he was still taken inside the FIA premises without his legal team.<\/p>\n In an update posted<\/a> on X at 9:05pm, Mazari-Hazir said Toor was arrested by the FIA.<\/p>\n Talking to Dawn.com<\/em>, she said an FIA official came out of the building, delivered the legal team a handwritten note from Toor and said that the journalist was \u201cformally arrested\u201d. The letter seen by Dawn.com<\/em> contained various instructions from the journalist for his family.<\/p>\n Mazari blamed<\/a> his arrest on the high court\u2019s failure to \u201cprotect fundamental rights\u201d.<\/p>\n In an earlier post, Mazari said that Toor had been detained at the FIA cell for the past few hours.<\/p>\n \u201cManner in which journalists in this country are being treated is appalling. Constitutional Courts must play their role to ensure fundamental rights are not brazenly violated in this manner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Toor\u2019s arrest came after was interrogated<\/a> for nearly eight hours on Friday by FIA officials in connection with the same case.<\/p>\n Toor\u2019s counsel had posted on social media platform X that the journalist and his legal team left the FIA\u2019s cyber crime wing headquarters at 7pm that day after his detention at 10:50am.<\/p>\n Toor had later thanked his legal team and his supporters for their help and solidarity throughout the incident, saying that he faced a \u201ctough time\u201d.<\/p>\n The interrogation happened despite the Attorney General for Pakistan assuring the Supreme Court last month that the FIA would not take action before the general election on the notices sent to journalists. The apex court had adjourned the hearing in the case till the first week of March.<\/p>\n Criticising the arrest, veteran journalist Hamid Mir said the agency had arrested Toor previously as well but failed to prove anything against him. \u201cThis time they will try to settle some old scores with new allegations under new government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe assault on press freedom in Pakistan continues to strengthen as journalists are arrested simply for reporting, asking critical questions and speaking truth to power,\u201d hit out digital rights activist Usama Khilji.<\/p>\n Journalist Matiullah Jan said the arrest was \u201chighly condemnable\u201d. \u201cThis is a chilling reminder to the journalist community that in a hybrid system of government nothing actually changes with the elections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\u2018Assault on press freedom\u2019<\/h2>\n