Journalist Mohsin Baig arrested on complaint of Murad Saeed

ISLAMABAD, Feb 16,2022- Journalist Mohsin Baig was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the federal capital Islamabad. An FIA official was injured in the firing.

Media reported quoting the police sources, the house of journalist Mohsin Baig was raided by FIA Cyber ​​Crime Wing personnel.

Baig has been critical of the government’s policies and used to appear in TV talk shows as an analyst.

According to the spokesman of Islamabad police, when the FIA ​​team reached his house to arrest Mohsin Baig, there was resistance during the arrest and the accused opened fire, injuring an FIA official.

An Islamabad police spokesman also said that journalist Mohsin Baig had been transferred to the police station and further legal action was being taken.

Journalist Mohsin Baig’s son has confirmed his arrest, accusing him of criticizing government policies.

On Monday, the FIA had arrested a social media activist Sabir Hashmi from Lahore for “running trends against the prime minister” on social media.

Social media activist arrested for running nasty trend against PM

In a recent talk show aired on News One on February 11, Baig made a reference to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ex-wife Reham Khan’s book, while the panel was discussing the performance of Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed. The panelists were discussing the premier’s awarding of certificates to top ten ministries over their performance in which Saeed’s ministry awarded the first rank.

FIR lodged by Saeed Murad says:

Enquiry No. 535/2022 dated 16.02.2022 was registered on the complaint of Mr. Murad Saeed, Federal Minister for Communications. He stated that he stands first among all the ministries and he has been awarded excellent performance award by Prime Minister of Pakistan. On 10th Feb, 2022, one Mr. Mohsin Baig assassinate his character by using abusive & immoral language in a talk show namely ‘G For Gharida’. The alleged in presence of other participants relate a baseless story with derogatory remarks and the same was thereafter shared through social media including Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. This shattered his image in public. During the course of enquiry, it surfaced that a video is propagating over social media regarding a talk show namely ‘G for Gharida’ and a participant namely Mohsin Baig on a question expresses his remarks.

The FIR further reads:

Matter of the fact is that the panelist Mr. Mohsin Baig cautiously co-relate the some incidents with Mr. Murad Saeed and Prime Minister of the Pakistan which lead to disgrace the personality of the Honorable Minister and caused to create uncertainty in public. The panelist used derogatory remarks without any plausible reason whereas the book with which he was being correlated, specifically untrue story. Such defamation based on rumors and fake and fictitious incidents narrated at Page No. 273 of a book written by Ms. Reham Khan (journalist) with the intention to create unrest and advances to racial hatred among the public and damage the public tranquility. Moreover, the intention to associate the name of the Honorable Minister with fictitious incidents and the same was also being allies with Honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan.

In the light of the context of the book, the aforesaid members of the talk show express their intentions to disgrace the personality of a natural person and the alleged person(s) tried to distort the complainant’s image for his ulterior motives and it also lead to cultivate and induces a natural person to engage in a sexually explicit act without verifying thc authenticity of the written verification of this rumor through an information system. The comments shared by the panelist, Mr. Mohsin Baig against the Federal Minister reasoning to disparaging and shrewd the personal integrity of the worthy Federal Minister. Prima facie, the accused person namely Mohsin Jamil Baig committed offences u/s 20, 21(d) & 24 of PECA-2016 R/w 500,505-PPC. Istaghasa is being sent for registration of a case against Mohsin Jamil Baig while the role of others (if any) will be determined during the course of investigation. The Technical Report regarding the alleged video has also been prepared. Therefore, a case may be registered.

On receipt of Istaghasa, a case is hereby registered u/s 20, 21(d) & 24 of PECA-2016 R/w 500,505-PPC against the accused person namely Mohsin Jamil Baig R/o House No. 8, Street No. 39, Sector F-8/1, Islamabad while the role of others (if any) will be determined during the course of investigation. Investigation is entrusted to Sycd Ali Raza Gardezi, Assistant Director/lnv, FIA, CCRC, Lahore by the orders of the competent authority.