FIA, PTA Directed To Block Defamatory Material On Social Media On Kubra Khan's Plea

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FIA, PTA directed  to block defamatory material on social media on Kubra Khan's plea

The actress who decided to sue YouTuber Adil Raja has approached the Sindh High Court for action against defamatory material on the social media sites.

KARACHI: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Jan 5th, 2023) The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block defamatory and scandalous online content on social media sites against television actress Kubra Khan and others.

A SHC division bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar after preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the FIA, PTA and others and called their comments.

The bench also directed the FIA and PTA to block such channels and handles involved in spreading defamatory campaign against the actresses.

The court passed the orders on plea moved by Kubra Khan, one of the four actresses who became target of YouTuber Adil Raja's Vlog.

The UK-based YouTuber who is also a retired army officer levelled serious allegations last week against some actresses by mentioning their initials — S.A, K.K, M.H and H.K.

The social media users started discussing the matter on the social media, forcing the actresses to respond to the allegations on social media. Kubra, one of the actresses, told Raja to either bring proof for his claims, retract the statement, publicly apologise or she will take strict action and sue him for defamation.

Kubra filed the petition against a scandalous and defamatory campaign against her and three other tv actresses on social media. The petitioner submitted that a YouTuber who claimed himself as rights activist and former army officer had made false allegations against four actresses of the media industry degrading them and causing an affront to their modesty and dignity by alleging that they were used by agencies to lure politicians into compromising positions at safe houses.

Kubra through her counsel contended that Raja later on uploaded another video where he clarified the issue and retracted from his earlier version.

But, she said, during the process it had irreparably damaged the reputation of the actresses, including the petitioner because of the defamatory content uploaded on social media sites and cyberspace.

The petitioner said that the YouTuber committed a crime under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA).

She submitted that the FIA and PTA had been approached for removal of such content but no action had been taken against the YouTuber or removal of the defamatory and scandalous content.

She asked the court to direct the PTA and FIA to take immediate action against perpetrators of the PECA law.

Abdullah Hussain

Abdullah Hussain is a staff member who writes on politics, human rights, social issues and climate change.