Journalist Farhan Mallick was granted bail on Monday in a PECA case related to alleged “anti-state” content after a Karachi court accepted an appeal against an earlier bail rejection by a judicial magistrate. His lawyer, Abdul Moiz Jaferii, confirmed the development and said the bail was granted for a surety of Rs 100,000.
Mallick, the founder of Raftar media agency, was arrested on March 20 in Karachi. He was booked under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in a case linked to his YouTube channel, where he allegedly posted anti-state content. His arrest sparked criticism from media organisations and human rights activists.
District Judge (East) Dr Chaudhry Wasim Iqbal heard the appeal against the March 28 order by Judicial Magistrate Yusra Ashfaq, who had previously denied bail. Lawyer Jaferii also shared that a separate bail hearing related to a spoofed calls case was scheduled for 12 pm at the Malir district court.
In the spoofed calls case, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had raided a call centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, where employees were allegedly making fraudulent Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to foreign nationals. They reportedly posed as representatives of Master and Visa banking systems to steal credit card data.
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Raftar Media, on X (formerly Twitter), called the court’s bail decision a “small victory in a long journey” and said, “We are now headed to Malir Court with [the] legal team for the second hearing — keep making dua; hope and resilience keep us going.”
PECA and Alleged Call Centre Cases Against Mallick
Following his March 20 arrest, Mallick was given into FIA custody for four days. On March 25, he was sent on judicial remand, but the next day, FIA received five-day physical custody in the spoofed calls case.
The original FIR mentioned that Raftar TV’s YouTube channel was involved in running a campaign with anti-state videos. Mallick was charged under sections 16, 20, and 26-A of PECA and sections 500 and 109 of the PPC.
Section 26-A was recently added to the PECA law and defines fake news as any information that a person knows or believes to be false and which may cause fear, panic, disorder, or unrest. Punishment under this law can be up to three years in jail or a fine of Rs2 million, or both.
The growing criminalisation of online disinformation has raised concerns in Pakistan, especially among journalists, over the broad application of such laws.
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