An officer of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cybercrime wing, who registered an FIR against singer Meesha Shafi, actress Iffat Omer and seven others was suspended from service.

“Muhammad Asif Iqbal, assistant director/senior investigator (BPS-17) cybercrime reporting centre Lahore is hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect till further orders.”

According to FIA tweet, Asif Iqbal is suspended and issued an explanation on maintaining a private Twitter account bearing CCW which stands for Cyber Crime Wing.

https://twitter.com/cybercrimefia/status/1311893300299927552

“Mr Iqbal has been suspended on the basis of a tweet he made to explain Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Media Crimes Act 2016, related to the case against Ms Shafi and others,” the source said.

He said the officer in question neither commented, nor gave his opinion, but just tweeted the law and the punishments it carried.

https://twitter.com/AsifIqbalccw/status/1310890142786355200

On Monday last, Ms Shafi, actor-host Iffat Omar, Leena Ghani, Fariha Ayub, Maham Javaid, Ali Gul, Haseemuz Zaman Khan, Humna Raza and Syed Faizan Raza were booked under section 20 (1) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 and R/W 109-PPC.

In November 2018, Ali Zafar had filed a complaint with the FIA cybercrime wing, alleging that many social media accounts were posting “threats and defamatory material” against him. He provided details of some Twitter and Facebook accounts to support his claim.

‘Teefa in Trouble’ actor had alleged that many fake accounts had been created to launch a smear campaign against him weeks before Ms Shafi levelled allegation of sexual harassment against him in April, 2018. He stated that most of these fake accounts were allegedly linked to Ms Shafi and her lawyer.

Ms Shafi had appeared before the FIA with her team of lawyers in December 2019, but failed to produce any witness to back her allegation (of sexual harassment) against Ali Zafar, the FIR says.

A defamation suit filed by Mr Zafar against Ms Shafi has also been pending with a session court.