A Lahore court has prolonged the physical custody of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social media activist Falak Javed for an additional four days, despite her lawyer’s serious allegations that the investigating agency has made no progress after nine days and is fabricating evidence against her in a case involving an anti-state tweet.
The decision was made on Saturday during a hearing at the District Courts presided over by Judicial Magistrate Naeem Wattoo. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) had petitioned the judiciary for an extension of the remand to continue their inquiry into the purported anti-state social media post and the uploading of an inappropriate image of a provincial minister.
Defense counsel Rana Abdul Maroof vehemently opposed the agency’s plea, describing the First Information Report (FIR) as baseless. He pointed out that while six individuals were linked to the case, his client was not initially nominated, suggesting she was arrested due to her connection to her sister, Sanam Javed.
The attorney contended that the NCCIA was “wrongfully implicating” his client. He highlighted that despite previous remand requests being granted for the recovery of a mobile phone, Falak Javed was never taken from jail custody for any such procedure. “Nine days of remand have already passed with no progress,” the lawyer argued, urging the court to transfer her to judicial custody instead.
Despite the strong objections from the defense, the magistrate accepted the NCCIA’s request and granted the authorities four more days to hold the PTI activist in physical remand for further investigation.