Actor Mehwish Hayat has adopted in Kubra Khan’s footsteps and brought authorized motion in opposition to YouTuber Adil Raja for defamatory content material shared on-line. The actor had initially approached the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing to look into the matter, nevertheless, as a result of lack of progress, she approached the Sindh Excessive Court docket (SHC) on Wednesday for treatment.
A petition was filed within the SHC by Hayat that reads that the London Nahi Jaunga actor is “aggrieved by a social media storm generated and precipitating due to certain videos made by an individual by the name Adil Farooq Raja who claims to be a self-professed ‘geopolitical analyst’ and ‘rights activist’ maintaining a YouTube channel by the name of Soldier Speaks as well as a Twitter handle by the name Soldier Speaks”.
She known as the allegations levelled by Raja “blatantly false, derogatory, defamatory, malicious, incendiary, dangerous [and] sensationalising” and stated they “degrad[ed]” the 4 actors he talked about in his video, “causing an affront to their modesty and dignity by alleging that they were used by intelligence agencies and the establishment to lure politicians into compromising positions at safe houses maintained by such agencies where videos were made of such actresses with such politicians.”
Her petition acknowledged that after the livestream aired, a number of social media customers on Twitter and Instagram began superimposing Hayat’s photos in addition to these of different actors whose initials have been uttered by Raja. She argued that Raja spelled out Hayat’s title initials M and H within the video and “certain social media users intentionally with an interest to malign state institutions and to malign the reputation of the petitioner launched a social media campaign on such a video aired by Mr Raja.”
Within the petition, a number of Twitter accounts apart from Raja’s have been named for “propagating” the video and its “malicious content” that maligns the state establishments in addition to Hayat.
“Despite the clarification contained in the second video, the social media users mentioned in Para 6 above did not abate their campaign, in fact the above mentioned comments made by Mr Raja gave wind to the incendiary campaign being run by the individual social media users mentioned in Para 6, creating a threatening environment for the petitioner. Given the current high political temperature of the country, and the ongoing political battle between certain political parties of the country, such insinuation and allegations against the petitioner have made her fear for her life at the hands of overzealous political workers who may target her because of the incendiary remarks against the petitioner made by the users as detailed in Para 6 hereinabove,” learn the petition.
Hayat has petitioned the court docket beneath sections 11 (hate speech), 20 (offences in opposition to dignity of a pure individual), 21 (offences in opposition to modesty of a pure individual and minor) and 37 (illegal on-line content material) of the Pakistan Digital Crimes Act, 2016.
The petition acknowledged that there have been numerous earlier cases the place the dignity of girls is “ridiculed in such fashion over social media”, nevertheless, it’s excessive time official respondents are taken to “task for their sluggish attitude in such circumstances and their derogation from their official duties of protecting the dignity and reputation of the persons like the petitioner”.
“Despite the law sufficiently empowering the official respondents to take action in such circumstances, it has been noted time and again that no immediate protection or relief is accorded to the complainants before the official respondents, forcing them to bring the matter to the attention of the Honourable Courts,” the petition acknowledged.
In her petition, Hayat requested for six areas of reduction from the court docket — that the court docket direct the FIA to take rapid motion on her complaints, that it direct the FIA to inquire and take motion as per the regulation in opposition to the customers talked about within the petition and for the court docket to declare that the FIA’s inaction within the interim interval is in derogation of the duties forged upon them by PECA, 2016.
She additionally asks that “the Honourable Court may be pleased to direct the official Respondents/FIA to conclude their inquiries and pass appropriate orders for the prosecution of such individuals, including but not limited to the users mentioned in Para 6 hereinabove, and others as are found to have contravened the provision of PECA, 2016, by damaging the reputation, modesty and dignity of the petitioner through the use of social media platforms as well as causing harm to national integrity and state institutions.” She has additionally requested for the prices of instantaneous proceedings within the favour of Hayat and any and all reduction granted to her as deemed match and acceptable.
The SHC ordered the FIA to take away the content material that maligns Hayat and issued two-week notices to the FIA and PTA relating to the defamation case. Talking to the media outdoors the court docket, Hayat stated that she hopes that the individuals who defamed her are held accountable for his or her actions.
What occurred
On January 2, Kubra Khan threatened to sue YouTuber Raja for defamation after a video during which he stated that 4 “top models and actresses” had illicit relationships with former high generals.
“I stayed quiet initially because obviously a fake video isn’t going to take over my existence but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Do you think random people can point fingers at me and I’ll sit quietly and take it?” she wrote on Instagram and Twitter.
“So Mr Adil Raja before you start to heap allegations upon people have some proof first. You have a total of three days to come up with this proof which you claim is haq and sach. If not, either retract your statement and publicly apologise or I will be suing you for defamation. And don’t worry, lucky for you I’m not just from here, I am from UK so I’ll come there if I have to! Cause the truth is with me, rights are with me and I don’t fear anyone or their fathers,” Khan stated.
Raja, who describes himself on Twitter as a geopolitical analyst and rights activist, launched a video on December 31 during which he made a number of sweeping statements in opposition to the previous high management of the military. One allegation was that 4 “top models and actresses” would fraternise with the previous officers in addition to with politicians. He was unable to substantiate his claims with proof apart from claiming it was revealed to him by “sources”.
He additionally talked about the initials of the 4 girls he was making the claims about — MK, MH, SA and KK or AK. The confusion within the final set of initials was compounded when he claimed to have stated AK after Khan’s tweet.
Amid widespread hypothesis on social media of who the actors he talked about could possibly be, given the initials, Hayat and Sajal Aly had shared messages slamming “baseless insinuations” and “character assassination”.
A number of different members of the leisure fraternity have known as out the YouTuber for his video and expressed their assist for ladies actors.
Khan has already filed a petition in opposition to Raja and the SHC has directed the FIA and PTA to dam defamatory content material posted about her.
