LAHORE: Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk issued a bailable arrest warrant for singer Meesha Shafi on Wednesday after denying her application for immunity from personal appearance in a case involving the running of a social media vilification campaign against fellow singer-turned-actor Ali Zafar.
Additionally, the court issued a bailable arrest warrant for another nominated suspect, Maham Javed, and asked both suspects to appear in court on February 19 after submitting Rs. 50,000 bail bonds.
The court had already issued arrest warrants for both people, but both had filed motions to be able to stay away from each other.
The judge said that the suspects are not entitled to make another exemption petition until and unless they surrender to the court, adding that Shafi and Javed failed to provide a compelling basis for requesting immunity. In the words of the court, Shafi and Javed asked for exemptions because they were outside the country.
The magistrate further said that the arguments on the accused’s motions for permanent immunity from prosecution were concluded.
He said that petitions to overturn the acquittals of defendants Ali Gul Pir and Leena Ghani have been waiting for a long time, and the plaintiff’s lawyer hasn’t yet made a case for the acquittal and exemption motions.
The court cautioned that if the plaintiff’s attorney did not appear at the next hearing, it would declare the judgement based on the prosecutor’s arguments.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had already filed a challenge against eight individuals, including Shafi. According to the challan, the accused could not defend themselves against claims that they ran a harmful campaign on social media against the actor or singer.
Zafar’s attorney urged the court to proceed with prosecution of the accused under the cybercrime statute.
