Court grants bail to journalist Farhan Mallick in 'anti-state' content case

The court granted bail to journalist Farhan Mallick on Monday. He was arrested and booked in Karachi on March 20 under sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (Peca) and Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for allegedly sharing anti-state content on his YouTube platform.

Journalist's counsel Abdul Moiz Jaferii stated that his client was granted bail in a case related to Peca against surety bonds worth 100,000. 

District Judge (East) Dr Chaudhary Wasim Iqbal heard and approved the appeal against his own decision on March 28, said Jaferii.

Another bail application hearing was scheduled today at the Malir district court, related to a case involving alleged spoofed calls made through a call center. 

Read: Court denies bail to journalist Farhan Mallick in PECA case

According to the counsel, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided a call center in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, uncovering employees using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software to make fraudulent calls to foreign nationals. These individuals allegedly posed as representatives of MasterCard and Visa’s security departments.

Earlier, a local court on Friday had dismissed the bail plea of journalist Farhan Mallick in a case related to alleged violations of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).

Later his bail petititon was also approved in the call center fraud case. 

Journalist Farhan Mallick was arrested on March 20 and subsequently handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) custody for four days. 

He was then sent to jail on judicial remand on March 25. The FIA later obtained his five-day physical custody in a new case related to alleged credit card data theft through a call center.

The first information report against Mallick accused him of “running campaigns for the posting of anti-state videos, targeting the dignitaries mentioned in violation.”