FIA questions Imran Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjutha 'for eight hours'

ISLAMABAD – Naeem Haider Panjutha, lawyer for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, said on Tuesday the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) cybercrime wing summoned him and interrogated him for more than eight hours over a social media posting concerning Islamabad Additional Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar.

In a video message he posted on his Twitter handle after leaving the FIA Headquarters, Panjutha said the FIA summoned him in line with an order of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Amir Farooq, who had directed the authorities to investigate people posting anything offencive against judge Humayun Dilawar. He said that Justice Amir Farooq's orders were the reason that FIA officials summoned him and kept in illegal custody for more than eight hours.

Panjutha said that he sought time to answer the questions asked by the FIA, but he was forced to immediately submit his answers to the questions. He said that he gave answers to thos questions, but he was not allowed to leave the FIA headquarters even after that.

آٹھ گھنٹے حبس بجا میں رکھنے کے بعد مجھے چھوڑا گیا. pic.twitter.com/1Ojp0EujMw

— Naeem Haider Panjutha (@NaeemPanjuthaa) August 8, 2023

Earlier, PTI lawyer Sher Afzal Khan Marwat in a tweet claimed that Panjutha’s clerk had said the lawyer had been taken into custody but it was not clear whether it was a formal arrest or not as the first information report cannot be “registered directly and without permission of Islamabad High Court”.

“Naeem Haider Panjutha Adv has reportedly been arrested by FIA. He went to FIA headquarters to join inquiry in Humayun Dilawar's Facebook posts,” the PTI leader tweeted.

Marwat said that Panjutha’s arrest “would unite the legal fraternity” and would not stop the PTI chairman’s legal team from discharging their “professional obligations”.

On the direction of the IHC, the Cybercrime Circle of FIA had launched an inquiry against Panjutha and had directed him to appear before the inquiry team at the Cybercrime Reporting Centre in Islamabad today.