IB officially forwards complaint against ARY for airing ‘fabricated document’

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has gone through with its plans to take legal action against the circulation of a fake IB memo, and have forwarded an official complaint to the relevant television channel through the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA).

According to PEMRA, the IB had forwarded a letter of complaint to them against the ARY news network’s nighttime television talk show ‘power play.’ The allegation made against the the show had been airing fabricated documents “with regards to linkages between 37 parliamentarians and defunct and militant organisations.”

On September 25 and September 27, the show had claimed that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked the IB to keep tabs on 37 MNAs from his party, a number of whom were key federal ministers and party leaders. The reason given was them supposedly having relations to banned terror outfits.

The government had been quick the reject the memo in question, and indicating that it was a forgery. The IB had also rejected any such orders from the former PM and possessing any such list.

The news was made even more troublesome given the situation the IB was already in after PTI leader Naeem ul Haq claimed the Bureau had spied on the proceeding of the Panama JIT.

Earlier in the week, the Federal Cabinet had decided to take action against the propagation of the ‘fake news’ after the memo began to spread on social media. According to the sources, the issue was raised during the cabinet meeting by Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada.

During the meeting, a number of other Cabinet members, whose names had been on the list, agreed with Pirzada and urged the strong action against the doctored memo.

The ministers were of the view that the news was a sham, and nothing more than an attempt to malign them and the party during difficult times. They further argued that the government should do all in its power to reject the claims.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid, who was also part of the list, had later been asked by PM Abbasi to probe the matter.

Now, the IB’s official complaint has been forwarded according to PEMRA and further action is already being take. According to PEMRA, the action was taken under Section 26 of the PEMRA ordinance 2002, as amended by PEMRA amendment act 2007 Read with rule 8 (4) of PEMRA council of complaints.