The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday sentenced a lawyer to six months in prison and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 for making derogatory comments against a female judge on social media.

As per the details, the accused, Advocate Asadullah, was found guilty of contempt of court under Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2004, according to a short order issued by the PHC.

The case pertained to comments posted online against a female civil judge in Swat, over which a complaint had been filed after the lawyer allegedly used insulting and offensive language against the judge on social media.

The brief order by PHC noted that a detailed judgment in the case would be released later.

It merits a mention that the action is not the first of its kind as Pakistan continues to deal with cyberbullying, harassment or contempt cases under PECA laws.

Last September, a local court in Abbottabad sentenced two brothers in a cyber harassment case. Senior Civil Judge Moheebur Rehman convicted Zubair of harassing women abroad and handed him a five-year prison term along with a fine of Rs100,000.

His brother, Zeeshan, was sentenced to 40 days in jail and fined Rs10,000 for assisting by creating a fake Facebook account.

Meanwhile, a Canadian doctorate researcher has also been booked and taken into custody by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) for anti-state social media posts.