<\/p>\n
An Islamabad district and session court on Tuesday granted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) five-day remand of journalist Asad Ali Toor in a case pertaining to an online campaign against the judiciary.<\/p>\n
In January, the car\u00ade\u00adtaker government had formed<\/a> a five-member joint investigation team (JIT) to \u201cascertain facts behind a malicious social media campaign\u201d against the judiciary in the aftermath of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision<\/a> to deprive PTI of its iconic \u2018bat\u2019 symbol.<\/p>\n Last week, Toor was interrogated<\/a> for nearly eight hours by FIA officials on the same matter. The interrogation had taken place despite the attorney general for Pakistan assuring<\/a> the apex 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 Last night, Toor\u2019s legal team confirmed that he had been arrested<\/a> by the agency. Toor\u2019s counsel Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir 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 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 Today, Toor was presented before Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Shabbir. During the hearing, the FIA sought the journalist\u2019s physical remand.<\/p>\n Subsequently, the court accepted the requested and remanded Toor in FIA\u2019s custody for for five days.<\/p>\n Reacting to Toor\u2019s arrest, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was \u201cseriously concerned by the news\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe should be released immediately and any curbs on freedom of expression removed promptly,\u201d the HRCP said.<\/p>\n The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) also expressed its concern over Toor\u2019s arrest, in a post on X.<\/p>\n \u201cNCHR is deeply concerned by the arrest of journalist Asad Toor. The PECA law is a problematic law that needs thorough review. Freedom of speech and information is a fundamental right which must be upheld at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n Human rights lawyer and Toor\u2019s counsel Imaan Zainab-Mazari-Hazir said in a post on X<\/a>, \u201cAsad standing tall despite his unlawful arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n Former PPP leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar termed the arrest \u201canother blow for freedom of expression\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore judiciary goes out on a witch hunt perhaps they should take a moment out to reflect on their own shortcomings. Their record has never been anything to write home about!\u201d he said.<\/p>\nArrest condemned<\/h2>\n