Momina Iqbal's harassment case: Lahore court disposes of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar, wife's bail pleas as withdrawn

LAHORE: A Lahore court disposed of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar’s and his wife’s pre-arrest interim bail petitions as withdrawn on Thursday after the investigating officer said the arrest of the suspects was not required at the present stage in the case pertaining to television actor Momina Iqbal’s alleged harassment.

However, at the last hearing on July 28, then-investigating officer (IO), SHO Najam Bajwa from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), had informed the sessions court that Chadhar had been found guilty after investigation.

But the new IO, Hassan Sajjad Naqvi, told the court today that the investigation had changed and the suspects’ arrest was not required at this stage.

The IO had separately summoned Iqbal on September 1, according to the summon order seen by Dawn.

The order said that the suspects had requested a re-investigation of the case on the “basis of some new defence evidence […] Accordingly, your statement regarding the fresh evidence has to recorded”.

Iqbal was also present at the hearing, where the IO informed the court of the development.

Following that, Chadhar and his wife withdrew their bail petitions, and the court subsequently disposed of the pleas as withdrawn.

The case

In a social media post in May, Iqbal had alleged that she had been subjected to “online harassment, cyberbullying and death threats for a long time”.

She claimed that both she and her family had suffered severe mental stress and trauma because of the alleged conduct of an MPA, without naming the accused.

“A member of the provincial assembly belonging to the PML-N has been threatening me for an extended period. I repeatedly reported the matter to the NCCIA and the Federal Investigation Agency, but no action was taken,” she stated.

Subsequently, the PML-N’s “top leadership directed the NCCIA to immediately entertain the actor’s complaint and initiate action against the ruling party MPA if the allegations are proven”, a source had told Dawn. The source added that the Punjab Chief Minister’s Office also wanted to clear its name following Iqbal’s allegations against it.

Following these developments, the NCCIA summoned Iqbal and Chadhar on May 21. The agency’s Punjab head Muhammad Ali Waseem said the two were summoned after the NCCIA received Iqbal’s complaint.

A day after they recorded their statements, Iqbal filed an application with Lahore’s Chung Police for the registration of a first information report against Chadhar.

In her application, she alleged that the PML-N MPA had been making threatening calls to harass her and her fiance. She claimed that the lawmaker turned abusive when she refused his marriage proposal, after it transpired that he was already married to two women.

Subsequently, Chadhar began blackmailing her, she alleged, also mentioning WhatsApp messages and video calls from the suspect in her application. She further alleged that the MPA also sent the same threatening messages to her sister’s mobile phone.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz also warned in a post on X that any attempt to exert political pressure, abuse influence, or exploit a woman by threatening to release “personal content” in the case involving Iqbal and Chadhar would be met with “firm and uncompromising action.”

On June 4, the NCCIA registered a case against Chadhar on Iqbal’s complaint under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber stalking) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, read with Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 109 (punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.