Six journalists, including Lahore Press Club President Muhammad Arshad Ansari, approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday to challenge notices issued by the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, named the NCCIA director, deputy director and inspector from Lahore as well as the director general from Islamabad as respondents in the case.

The petitioners were named as Ansari, Sheikh Mujahid Latif, Sheraz Nisar, Ahmed Faraz, Yasir Shamoon and Waseem Sabir.

According to the petition, the journalists’ professional duty was to cover criminal cases and highlight issues and defects in the police administration. Further, it said that the petitioners had criticised the formation of the Crime Control Department, the appointment of Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Faisal Kamran without merit and the increasing crime rate in Lahore.

The journalists contended that this prompted DIG Kamran to “launch malicious social media campaigns against petitioners through retired police officials”.

It stated that on September 18, a “premeditated complaint based on false and fabricated contents” was submitted to the NCCIA to “defame” the petitioners. It said that later first and second notices were issued by the NCCIA deputy director to the journalists for personal appearance.

The petitioners argued that the first notice was issued on September 20 and the second on September 24, with a directive to appear the very next day on September 25.

“The gap between both notices is three to four days, which shows misuse of power/authority just to malign [the] petitioners,” the petition said.

“Powers are being misused by [the] respondents [and] notices are being sent, maliciously motivated by [the] desires of others just to malign journalists,” the petition added.

“[These] notices are illegal and unlawful [and] no rules have been made yet for [the] check and balance of [the] notices mechanism with [a] duration or gap between notices. Serving Notices at [the] desire of higher authorities to malign journalists is clearly mala fide [on the] part of [the] investigating officer,” said.

The petitioners requested that the LHC quash the NCCIA’s initial September 18 notice as it was “illegal, unlawful and void ab initio”. They also called on the court to suspend the operation of the September 18 notice till the petition was decided.