Staff/Court Reporter Dawn TV, Daily Dawn
Islamabad: Journalist Fakhar-ur-Rehman, arrested from Islamabad under the PICA Act, has been sent to jail on judicial remand.
His name was also included in the case of the federal investigation agency National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), which was registered against some journalists, bloggers, and political activists on the charge of allegedly ‘spreading derogatory content against state institutions’.
On Saturday, he was produced before the Judicial Magistrate’s Court, where Fakhar-ur-Rehman denied spreading false information, and the defense lawyer requested dismissal of the case.
On the other hand, the NCCIA requested physical remand; however, the court ordered him to be sent to jail on judicial remand.
The FIR, registered on April 20, 2026, under sections 20 and 26 of the PECA Act 2016 (Amendment Act 2025), names journalists Rizwan Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Sabir Shakir, Moeed Hassan Pirzada, Fakhar-ur-Rehman, Syed Haider Raza Mehdi, Aqil Hussain, Adil Farooq Raja, Sibtain Raza, and Jibran Ilyas of PTI’s social media team.
During the hearing, defense counsel Ahad Khokhar took the stand and stated that Fakhar-ur-Rehman did not fabricate any false information himself but rather tweeted a statement by a religious figure as a reference. According to him, the same video was also shared by thousands of other accounts, while no action was taken against the person who made the original statement.
The defense counsel told the court that Fakhar-ur-Rehman responded to the NCIA notice and is fully cooperating in the investigation, so he should be discharged from the case.
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