Gulalai Ismail's father detained in Pak in cybercrime case

Professor Muhammad Ismail, the father of Pakistani human rights activist, Gulalai Ismail, has been detained by law personnel in Peshawar in connection with a cybercrime case as per the country's laws, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said on Friday.

"Prof Mohammad Ismail has been detained by the law enforcement authorities in Peshawar in a case of cybercrime as per our laws. Being a citizen of Pakistan, Prof Ismail is entitled to due process and right of defence provided in the Constitution," he tweeted.

"Any comment to the contrary, or a pre-judgment in the matter, is unwarranted," Faisal said in a follow-up tweet.

Professor Ismail is currently on a 14-day judicial remand after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Peshawar arrested him following an FIR lodged against him under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016, his lawyer Fazal Khan told The Dawn.

He was produced before a court in Peshawar where judicial magistrate Naveedullah rejected FIA's plea for sending him on physical remand and instead sent him on a 14-day judicial remand, Khan said.

The lawyer also said on Thursday that Professor Ismail was at the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for another case.

"At around 4:30 pm he left the high court building and was picked up by some unknown men and shifted to (an) unknown location," he added.

The case was filed after a complaint was registered against Professor Ismail by persons namely Sajid Iqbal, Ali Ahmad, Riazur Rehman and Walid Mir on October 8.

"The complaint is regarding ... hate speech and fake information against government institutions of Pakistan on Facebook and Twitter," the FIR said, adding that details of Professor Ismail's Facebook and Twitter IDs, passwords and a mobile phone were collected by the FIA.

Gulalai, who is currently in the US, said that her father was picked up by "men wearing militia dress" in Peshawar. "My father has been picked up by men wearing Militia dress from outside of Peshawar High Court an hour ago," she had tweeted.

She had termed the "abduction" of her father in Peshawar an attempt to terrorise the women of Pakistan and others who dare to use their "conditional rights".

The human rights activist managed to escape Pakistan to seek political asylum in the US in September after being accused of treason. She reached the US months after she was arrested and released for holding a protest demonstration outside the National Press Club in Islamabad.