LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday granted interim protective bail to Noreen Niazi, the sister of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan, in a case registered by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

The NCCIA case alleges that Niazi made derogatory and inflammatory remarks against state institutions during a podcast interview and in subsequent clips shared on X.

Earlier, Niazi appeared before the court along with her counsel, Barrister Shahryar Riaz.

The counsel submitted that the petitioner was a permanent resident of Lahore, while the case had been registered in Islamabad. He said the petitioner feared arbitrary arrest before she could approach the relevant court in Islamabad.

The barrister also argued that the allegations in the case were politically motivated and part of an attempt to harass her.

The counsel requested that the court grant interim protective bail to the petitioner, allowing her to appear safely before the relevant court in Islamabad.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Sardar Akbar Ali granted protective bail to Niazi for one week and directed her to appear before the relevant court before the next hearing.

The first information report (FIR) was registered on Monday under Sections 20 (Offences against dignity of a natural person) and 26-A (Punishment for false and fake information) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016, alongside sections 505 (Statement conducing to public mischief) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, alleged that Niazi and others had been involved in “preparing, publishing, propagating, glorifying, disseminating and promoting highly offensive, derogatory, inflammatory and intimidating content” on social media. It added that she had deliberately targeted security and state institutions with misleading and false allegations and targeted the reputation of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

The NCCIA termed this a “deliberate campaign” to malign these institutions and spread false narratives, and accused Niazi of undermining the achievements of the armed forces in a podcast interview available online.

“The accused has intentionally spread hated against the defence forces … with an intent to cause fear, panic and disorder” amid the public, the FIR stated.

The NCCIA had earlier summoned Niazi to appear before it on July 20 over allegations of disseminating “false, offensive and inflammatory” content against state institutions.

While the notice did not specify the content in relation to which Niazi has been summoned, it was issued after the clip of her making claims in relation to last year’s brief military conflict between Pakistan and India was widely shared on social media.

In the clip, she is seen alleging during an interview that the conflict was “orchestrated” to improve the image of Pakistan’s military. She claimed the “drama” was played out in collaboration with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, questioning why Modi would have refrained from further attacking Pakistan otherwise.

In this connection, she went on to allege that the objective was to get Israel recognised by Pakistan, linking US President Donald Trump’s praise of Pakistan’s leadership with Israel’s recognition as well.