Journalist Waheed Murad’s post-arrest bail plea accepted

ISLAMABAD: A district and session court, Islamabad on Friday approved the post-arrest bail plea of journalist Waheed Murad following his two-day physical remand on charges of cybercrime.

Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah ordered the release of the journalist on bail against Rs20,000 surety bonds after the FIA produced him before the court on completion of his physical remand.

Initially, the court had set surety bonds at Rs50,000, however, Murad’s plea for a reduction was accepted, and the amount was lowered.

The petition was filed by Murad’s mother-in-law, Abida Nawaz, through lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha.

Murad was arrested under the country’s cybercrime laws by the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre for “sharing highly intimidating content” on social media platforms.

According to the first information report (FIR), the journalist, through his content, knowingly “disseminated/propagated fake, false, misleading, and misinterpreted information” leading to hatred against the government functionaries.

Murad’s family and fellow journalists claimed that he was forcibly disappeared from his home in Islamabad’s Sector G-8 at around 2:05 am by unknown officials presumably belonging to intelligence agencies, and accompanied by a masked man in black uniforms and two police double cabin vehicles.

His family had earlier filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for his recovery.

Waheed Murad’s mother described herself as an “eyewitness to the enforced disappearance [of Murad], and was also herself manhandled by the abductors who also took away her phone”.

The state, the defence ministry, the Islamabad police chief, and the Karachi Company police’s station house officer were listed as respondents in the case.

The petition urged the IHC to direct the respondents to “immediately trace and produce” Murad before the court.

It pleaded that the court also order the respondents to “identify and investigate those responsible, directly or indirectly, for abducting and illegally detaining” the journalist, as well as to disclose information on any cases filed against him.