LHC summons FIA's investigation officer on Meesha Shafi plea

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday summoned an investigation officer of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for April 22, on a petition filed by singer Meesha Shafi for quashing a case of running a vilification campaign on the social media against singer-cum-actor Ali Zafar.

The single bench comprising Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh heard the petition, filed by the singer and others.

A counsel for petitioners argued before the court that the FIA Cyber Crime Wing had registered a fake case against Meesha Shafi and others on a complaint of Ali Zafar. He submitted that Ali Zafar had also filed a defamation suit against Meesha on the same charges.

He submitted that as per law, the defamation suit and cyber crime case could not be run concurrently. He claimed that Ali Zafar got registered the cyber crime case to counter litigation of sexual harassment. He pleaded with the court for quashing the cyber crime case, besides declaring Section 20 of Cyber Crime Act unconstitutional.

The court, after hearing arguments of the counsel, summoned the investigation officer along with a report and adjourned further hearing till April 22.

The FIA had filed a challan (charge-sheet) against Meesha Shafi and seven others before a judicial magistrate in connection with the case.

The Agency declared Meera Shafi alias Meesha Shafi, Iffat Omar, Maham Javaid, Leena Ghani, Haseemus Zaman, Fariha Ayub, Syed Faizan Raza, and Ali Gul Pir guilty in the challan.

The FIA alleged that Meesha Shafi posted false allegations of sexual harassment against Ali Zafar in April 2018 and she failed to produce any evidence in favour of her allegations. The other suspects also failed to provide evidence in favour of the direct allegations posted by them on the social media, it added.