FIA Summons Journalists Over Alleged Anti-State Social Media Campaign
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has summoned two journalists, Farhan Gauhar Mallick, owner of Raftar, and Adeel Habib, owner of Siyasat.pk, over allegations of running an “anti-state campaign” on social media.
Farhan Gauhar Mallick, a Karachi-based journalist and owner of the digital media platform Raftar, received a notice from the FIA Cyber Crime Circle in Islamabad on November 14. The notice accused him of propagating anti-state content on social media and summoned him for an inquiry in Islamabad on November 20.
Similarly, Siyasat. pk owner Adeel Habib, a Canada-based Pakistani journalist, was served a notice on the same grounds, with instructions to attend a hearing at the same date and time.
The notices cautioned both journalists that failure to comply would be punishable under Section 174 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A post shared on X by Raftar on November 16 described the sequence of events, starting on November 8, when he (Mallick) received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number directing him to appear before the FIA Cyber Crime office in Gulistan-e-Johar, Karachi, on November 14. On November 12, he obtained a temporary restraining order from the Sindh High Court via his lawyer, halting any action against him by the FIA. Despite the court order, Mallick attended the inquiry on November 14.
During the appearance, they were made to wait three hours and said that when the inquiry officer arrived, instead of providing details of the allegation against him, in the half-hour conversation, the organization stated that it was an attempt to harass him (Mallick). After this, he received another notice to appear at the office the following Tuesday, and then he received a notice via X to appear before the Islamabad office on November 20.
Ahead of Mallick’s hearing in Karachi, members of the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ), led by their senior journalist Fahim Siddiqui, gathered outside the FIA Cyber Crime Circle office in Gulistan-e-Johar on November 19. They expressed solidarity with the Raftar team and raised concerns over the harassment of journalists engaged in exposing societal and institutional issues. The FIA Cyber Crime Cell in Karachi had reportedly promised KUJ to consider withdrawing the notices to Mallick.
Photo Source: FIA
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