The Sindh Excessive Court docket directed on Thursday the Federal Investigation Company and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to dam defamatory materials being disseminated towards actor Rabia Iqbal alias Kubra Khan on social media.
The interim order got here on a petition filed by Khan towards “derogatory, defamatory, malicious, incendiary, dangerous and sensationalising allegations” made by YouTuber Adil Farooq Raja towards her and three different actors on the social media networking web sites.
A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, after preliminary listening to of the petition, issued notices to the director common of the FIA, chairman of the PTA and others for Jan 9.
The bench additionally informed the authorities to file their respective feedback by the subsequent date and adjourned the listening to.
In her plea, which she additionally shared on-line, Khan submitted {that a} YouTuber, who claimed himself to be a rights activist and former military officer, had made false allegations towards the 4 actors and degraded them.
She submitted that the individual was inflicting an affront to the actors about their modesty and dignity by alleging that they have been “used by intelligence agencies and the establishment to lure politicians into compromising positions at their safe houses”.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that Raja later uploaded one other video the place he clarified the difficulty and retracted his earlier model. “However, during the process it irreparably damaged the reputation of the actresses including the petitioner and on account of the contents uploaded in the social media sites and cyber space,” the counsel added.
He submitted that the FIA and PTA had been approached with requests to take away the content material however no motion had up to now been taken towards the YouTuber nor had the defamatory content material been faraway from the social media web sites.
He pleaded to the courtroom to direct the PTA and FIA to take quick motion towards the perpetrators in accordance with the Pakistan Digital Crimes Act, 2016 in letter and spirit. The courtroom was additionally urged to direct the authorities to carry an inquiry into the matter.
The video
The petition comes after Raja, who describes himself on Twitter as a geopolitical analyst and rights activist, launched a video on December 31 wherein he made a number of sweeping statements towards the previous prime 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 ladies 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 threatening to sue him for defamation.
Raja claimed on Twitter that he hadn’t defamed Khan and pointed to his “condemnation” of the rampant hypothesis that arose after his video as proof of this. He accused her of defaming him by explicitly naming him in her publish.
The scenario grew extra heated when numerous celebrities lent Khan their assist, calling out the character assassination of considered one of their very own.
