رانا زاہد ظفر کی ضمانت منظور کرنے کا سپریم کورٹ کا فیصلہ

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN ( Appellate Jurisdiction )
Present :
Mr. Justice Qazi Facz Isa
Mr. Justice Yahya Afridi
Criminal Petition No. 1501 of 2022
( Against the order dated 10.11.2022 of the Lahore High Court , Multan Bench passed in Cr . Misc . No. 6048 - B / 2022 )
Zahid Zafar . Petitioner
Versus
The State and another . Respondents
For the Petitioner : Mr. Abdul Hameed Khan Rana , ASC .
For the State : Raja Shafqat Abbasi , Deputy Attorney - General for Pakistan . a / w Muhammad Ali Hashmi , ( AD FIA Multan )
For Respondent No. 2 :
Mr. Ghulam Mustafa , ASC .
( Through video - link from Lahore )
Date of Hearing:16.12.2022 .

ORDER

Qazi Faez Isa , J. The petitioner seeks post - arrest bail in respect of a case arising out of FIR No. 77 dated 6 April 2022 registered at Police Station FIA Cyber Crime Circle , Multan . The allegation against the petitioner was that he was part of a Whatsapp group and the complainant came to know that he had posted something in Arabic on such group on 14 March 2022 which was alleged to constitute an offence under section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act , 2016 , for which maximum punishment is seven years , and that the same also constituted offence ( s ) relating to religion .

2. The learned counsel representing the petitioner states that what wast attributed to the petitioner does not constitute any offence ; that the complainant did not disclose how he came to know of the said Whatsapp message particularly when he was not a member of the said Whatsapp group ; that there was a delay of twenty - four days in reporting the matter ; that the Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA ) wrote to the Council of Islamic Ideology to seek its opinion whether the allegation leveled constituted an offence under section 295 - C of the Pakistan Penal Code and that the Council answered in the negative .

3 . THE The learned counsel for the complainant was asked how the complainant came to know about the purported Whatsapp message but no satisfactory answer was forthcoming . Therefore , we enquired from the learned Deputy Attorney General for Pakistan , assisted by the Assistant Director , FIA , whether the complainant was asked as to how came he know about the purported offence and were told that this was not asked . Since the said Whatsapp message was in Arabic we enquired whether either the petitioner or the complainant knew Arabic and were told that this aspect of the matter was also not enquired into . The investigation officer informed that he did not discover anything in the petitioner's cell phone to suggest that the petitioner had himself composed / constructed the said message and that it is possible that he had only forwarded it to the said group .

4. The aforesaid facts make this a case of further inquiry . Therefore , the petitioner is admitted to bail subject to furnishing bail bond in the sum of one hundred thousand rupees with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the Trial Court in the said case . This petition is converted into an appeal and allowed by setting aside the impugned order ..

Islamabad :

16.12.2022