Another Court Hearing

This Saturday (Dec 23) is the date of hearing for Faisal in the court of Additional District & Session Judge. There’re no points in the case any more. The Complainant (PTA) and Prosecution (FIA) both have withdrawn the case. The lawyer is one of the top criminal lawyers in the country. But it all depends on the perception of Judge, that’s what happened on the last hearing when bail application of Faisal was turned down.

Let’s hope and pray that this ordeal is closed by tomorrow inshallah.

Minister for IT has assured the industry that they would take action on the demands of industry within 7 days. Today’s 6th day and nothing moved this far. We’ve sent him a reminder yesterday.

No Bail, No Justice

Faisal’s case for his discharge from jail was presented to court today. The judge after listening to the case, ordered the following:

“Present Investigation Officer with record. The accused has been sent to judicial lock. At this stage, application for discharge of the accused can not be allowed. So the prosecution may adopt the given procedure under the law. The application is therefore turned down with the above referred observation”.

So FIA would move proceeding for case cancellation with the court which many take minimum 10-15 days.

Now the bail application of Faisal would be moved to High Court for his early release so that he can at least come out of jail before Eid ul Azha.

Unfortunately, it is very easy to get in, but very difficult to get out from the prison no matter whether you’re innocent and even the case is withdrawn. Judges are not concerned whether someone is spending worst days of his life in a cell for no crime and what’s happening to his family and relatives. They’re more interested in technicalities of the case.

Can there be more ironic a story out there. Poor Faisal, he has been cleared of all charges, but the Judge does not believe that is enough for him to acquit.

Peaceful Protest Rally

In order to get the innocent incarceration of the CEO ended from FIA custoday, the friends of Faisal and Cogilent organized a protest rally in Islamabad in front of the Ministry of Information Technology.

The protest was to bring to light the injustice which continues to this day (10 days and counting) with no relief in sight. We tried to approach everyone and presented our case to the best of our abilities, but no one seems to be listening and helping out. It is now clearly established that there was no illegal activity and that the raid itself was illegal. And the longer an innocent person remains behind bars, the bigger the human rights violation case it becomes in Pakistan.

The protest rally was supported by PASHA (Pak Software Houses Assoc), ISPAK (Internet Service Provider Assoc. of Pakistan), ACCO (Association of Call Centers), and many other networks including Pakistan ICT Policy Monitor Network. As a result over 150 people showed up to protest peacefully at the Ministry's office in Islamabad. The event was well covered by the media. GEO, ARY, AAJ, ATV and other channels. The News, The Jang and other newspapers were also present to highlight the issue. However, PTV, the government mouthpeace, was reluctant to cover the event.

We do hope that this ordeal will end soon and PTA would realize their error and would take appropriate steps within their own organization.

In response to the protest, PTA decided to go on a smear campaign and published various press releases attacking the company and its activities. What alarmed and surprised everyone was that all the allegations made by PTA in the press release were baseless and devoid of facts. If they really had something, then some solid evidence should have been brought forward, but to this day, PTA/FIA have not produced anything. And such smear attacks are not good for the Industry. It shows the vendetta mentality within the government and will only create further paranoia within the nascent industry of government's pigheadedness.