While the services of Ax social network are disrupted for the tenth day in a row in Pakistan, the authorities arrested another journalist on Monday, February 26 (Kab 7).
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Asad Ali Toor, a freelance journalist who has nearly 300,000 followers on the X network and 160,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, on Monday evening local time.
Mr. Toor’s lawyer, Iman Zainab Mazari-Hazaar, said that the FIA’s Cybercrime Reporting Unit in Islamabad had summoned the journalist for investigation and accused him of impeaching senior judges, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan. Against “propaganda” on social networks.
The lawyer described the treatment of journalists in Pakistan as “terrifying” on the Ax social network.
She wrote, “Constitutional courts must play their role to ensure that fundamental rights are not blatantly violated in this manner”.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the government of Pakistan have not yet commented on the arrest of this journalist. Human rights organizations and journalists have expressed their anger at the arrest of Mr.
Osama Khalji, a digital rights activist, wrote on Ax social network that attacks on freedom of expression in Pakistan have intensified. He wrote that journalists are arrested simply for “reporting, asking critical questions and telling the truth.”
Mr. Khalji also mentioned that the arrested journalist had criticized some of the decisions made by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Faiz Isa.
He wrote, “Is the Supreme Court above criticism? Is the role of the press obsolete? Is it still a democracy?”
The deputy head of the Independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and TV talk show host Manezi Jahangir then said that she plans to hold a protest against the arrest of this journalist and freedom of expression in Islamabad on Tuesday.
Mrs. Jahangir wrote that the arrest of journalist Asad should be condemned.
This is the second journalist arrested by Pakistani authorities in the last few days.
The police raided the house of another renowned journalist Imran Riaz Khan in the province of Punjab on Thursday and arrested him on charges of corruption.
But Mr. Riaz, who was arrested once before and was detained for almost five months, says that he has not done anything wrong and told the judge in the court on Friday that he was arrested because of his involvement in the parliamentary elections. He was reporting on frauds.
Riyaz Khan claims that he was arrested last time by Pakistani intelligence agencies and tortured for up to five months. He has 5.6 million followers on X Network and 4.6 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
These journalists are being arrested in Pakistan when the Ax network has been shut down for the tenth day in a row.
In Pakistan, X social network services were closed when the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, who is currently in prison, Tehreek-e-Insaf announced his protest against fraud in the February 8 parliamentary elections. He asked his supporters to participate in the general demonstrations on February 17.
This is not the first time that Pakistani authorities have disrupted social networking services in the past few days. Even before the elections, when members of the Tehreek-e-Insaf Party led by Imran Khan, whose meetings were banned and wanted to hold online rallies, the authorities restricted social networking services, which human rights organizations condemned.
In Pakistan, on the day of the elections, internet services were suspended all over the country.
Despite the fact that the Ministry of Interior said that it did this for security reasons, critics say that the officials of the elections in this way created the conditions for tampering with the results of the elections.