KARACHI: On Thursday, the Sindh High Court issued a directive requesting updates on the removal of online defamatory material against Pakistani actors from the federal government, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Mehwish Hayat and Kubra Khan, two well-known actors, filed a lawsuit at the SHC alleging defamatory content against them after they were the targets of a smear campaign on social media that was sparked by allegations made by a YouTuber.
The court asked about the status of the removal of the aforementioned online content at the beginning of today’s session.
Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto questioned if the content that the court had ordered removed had actually been done so.
Officials from the federal government, FIA, and PTA responded to the pleas.
The government’s attorney insisted that while Khan’s statement has not yet been recorded, Hayat’s statement has been.
The PTA has been requested to remove the content, which it will do soon, according to the investigating officer for the FIA’s cybercrime wing, who notified the court.
He claimed that the FIA has initiated the investigations after assigning the complaint numbers.
While the authorities concerned had been asked to remove content that was uploaded from foreign areas, PTA claimed in its answer that the content that the Authority could remove on its own had already been removed.
Following that, the court requested updates from the authorities and postponed the hearing until February 24.
