ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed social media activist Mariam Malik to appear before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and record her statement in response to a notice issued by the agency.

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard a petition of Malik who appeared before the court along with her counsel Imaan Mazari advocate and restrained the FIA from harassing the social media activist.

During the hearing, the deputy attorney general produced her disputed tweets before the court and adopted the stance that she had tried to spread chaos in the society through her Twitter account.

Justice Minallah remarked that the institutions in reality exist due to people and asked that had the FIA made it a crime if the people who were not aware of the constitution, and had posted something on Twitter. He added that here no one cares about the Constitution.

The FIA representative informed the court that they have initiated an inquiry on the complaint of the state. The judge said that now this is only job left for the state which it has to do. The IHC chief justice said that she is uninformed and do not know about the Constitution.

The judge continued that people said a lot of things about him and even, they had alleged that he had been given a flat. He further said that they utter falsehood on social media about him, so should he be influenced by it. Justice Minallah said, “It would be a violation of my oath if I became afraid of something on the social media.”

The chief justice remarked that the institutions make their places with their work and character and these tweets have nothing to do with it. The FIA official said that they have only served notice and did not take any action.

Later, the bench directed the FIA to record the petitioner’s statement while restraining the agency from harassing Malik and adjourned the hearing of the case till June 24 for further proceedings.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022