ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s cybercrime authorities have registered a case against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi over remarks he made about state institutions, accusing him of issuing “false, misleading and derogatory” statements, according to a police report reviewed by Arab News on Monday.
The case was filed on Sunday after Afridi spoke to reporters outside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, where he had gone to meet Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. During the exchange, Afridi criticized Pakistan’s security forces and their conduct in the province.
The complaint says Afridi “knowingly and deliberately with malafide intentions and ulterior motives uttered false, misleading, derogatory and intimidating words against State Institutions,” and that the remarks were recorded and shared online.
“In the aforementioned video, the accused made statement containing offensive, profane, false, misleading, and unfounded allegations, with the intent to malign, defame, and cause harm to the reputation and integrity of the State Institutions of Pakistan,” the police report states.
The complaint says the remarks were promoted through political social media channels as an “organized attempt” to undermine public trust and “create unrest in the country and destabilize national security.”
