English daily Dawn has landed in hot water “for suggesting that Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari got a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official removed from office on the call of her daughter, Imaan Mazari”.
As per the details, Asif Iqbal of FIA’s cybercrime wing had registered an FIR against singer Meesha Shafi, actor Iffat Omer and seven others for their alleged involvement in a vilification campaign against singer Ali Zafar.
Iqbal, who often uses his social media to share details of different cybercrime laws and punishments, was removed from office after a tweet mentioning Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Media Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.
A notification by FIA director (cybercrime wing) announced the suspension of assistant director Iqbal soon after the said tweet.
“Service of Muhammad Asif Iqbal, assistant director/senior investigator (BPS-17) cybercrime reporting centre Lahore is hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect till further orders,” read the notification without any reason, prior warning or show-cause notice.
Dawn had quoted an official source as saying that Iqbal was suspended on the basis of the tweet.
It wasn’t later that Twitterati, including prominent ones, started alleging that some influential person in Islamabad was behind the sacking.
Amid the claims and the subsequent report by Dawn, hashtags ‘#JusticeforAsifIqbal’ and ‘#SackShireenMazari’ started trending on Twitter.
“Dawn sunk to new lows by publishing a maliciously motivated incorrect news story about how I had an FIA cybercrime official suspended after my daughter tweeted,” Shireen Mazari said soon after.
“FIA put out an immediate rejoinder to the Dawn story but some are bent on maligning and character assassination,” she added.
Meanwhile, her daughter tweeted that she will be serving a legal notice to Dawn for insinuating her involvement in the removal of the officer.
“[I] have nothing to do with this and to publish a false story implicating me is unacceptable. This false story resulted in vicious online abuse and this reporter should now come to court with evidence,” Imaan wrote.
FIA, on the other hand, has issued a statement saying it suspended Iqbal for acting as its “unofficial” spokesperson.
“Assistant Director Asif Iqbal was suspended and issued an explanation for maintaining a private Twitter account bearing cybercrime wing Lahore. He was acting as a spokesman for the cybercrime wing on his own accord without permission which is against disciplinary rules,” a statement posted by the wing’s spokesperson read.
This provided yet another little twist to a rare case where the agency had sought to discipline one of its own staffers.
