{"id":107523,"date":"2025-07-05T19:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T14:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=107523"},"modified":"2025-07-05T19:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T14:57:20","slug":"how-fia-is-freezing-bank-accounts-over-anti-state-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/107523\/","title":{"rendered":"How FIA is freezing bank accounts over ‘anti-state’ content"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LAHORE(National Times)- A bird seller in Lahore never imagined that selling a few parrots would leave him unable to access his own money. In early April, sixty-year-old Nadeem Nasir discovered that his bank account had been blocked after repeated failed transactions. When he visited his bank, he was told the FIA Cyber Crime Wing in Islamabad had ordered the freeze. The bank declined to share a copy of the directive. \u201cI was shocked,\u201d Nasir told\u00a0The News<\/em>\u00a0over the phone. \u201cWhat crime had I committed?\u201d After days of unanswered calls to FIA offices in Islamabad, he eventually spoke to an official in FIA\u2019s Lahore office who asked whether he knew a journalist based in Islamabad. He did. But only because he had sold parrots to this journalist, who has published reports and commentary critical of state institutions. The following day, that journalist also learned that both his and his mother\u2019s bank accounts had been frozen without any prior notice. Over recent years, the journalist has faced arrests and physical assaults due to his independent reporting. Last year, the FIA accused him of running a purportedly \u201cmalicious\u201d online campaign against judges of the Supreme Court. Finally in May, after more than a month without access to his earnings, the Islamabad High Court ordered that the journalist\u2019s account be restored. During the hearing, Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro asked the government\u2019s counsel to explain the basis for the freeze. In response, the government\u2019s counsel submitted a single-page reply from the FIA\u2019s Cyber Crime Wing. The document, seen by\u00a0The News<\/em>, stated that an investigation was underway into the journalist\u2019s \u201canti-state and anti-government posts\u201d and funds generated through different social media accounts. It also claimed to be examining possible \u201ctraces of money laundering and terror funding\u201d. But the court\u2019s ruling was pointed in its language. It noted that no prior notice had been issued to the journalist, nor was he granted an opportunity to respond to the allegations before his bank account was frozen. \u201cSuch action, undertaken without due process amounts to a blatant violation of fundamental rights,\u201d the judge wrote. The journalist\u2019s lawyer, Zainab Janjua, called the accusations baseless and described the investigation as an attempt to intimidate independent reporting. \u201cThe ridiculous nature of the allegations coupled with the manner in which FIA has purportedly been conducting this inquiry shows that it is nothing but another tool of the state agencies to penalise independent journalists for doing their job,\u201d she said. While his accounts were unfrozen by a court order, Nasir\u2019s account remains inaccessible months later. He is not the only one affected. Atif Sajjad Raza, who runs a media production house, and Rozi Khan, another bird seller, have also discovered that their bank accounts were frozen without formal notice. Each had at some point conducted financial transactions with the same journalist. In his petition to the Islamabad High Court, Raza detailed that he was directed by the FIA to submit an affidavit, stating that he \u201cdoes not share the political views\u201d of the journalist, if he wanted to have his bank account unblocked. Another independent journalist based in Islamabad had a similar story. In April, the bank accounts of his wife and sister were also blocked without warning. He too had faced arrest, abduction, and terrorism charges due to his reporting over the years. According to him, the FIA verbally cited an inquiry into alleged money laundering against him but never provided official documentation. The accounts were restored only after intervention by his brother, who is a lawyer. The News contacted the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency, which assumed responsibility for cyber-related investigations from the FIA in April.\u00a0 Despite multiple messages to the agency\u2019s additional director, Hasan Mehmood Satti, and to its spokesperson, Najeeb ul Hassan, both promised to respond but had not done so by the time this report was filed. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has repeatedly classified Pakistan as among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, where such practices often pass without consequence. Iqbal Khattak, the executive director of Freedom Network, a media development and civil liberties organisation in Islamabad, said the freezing of accounts appeared to be part of a broader effort by the state to discourage critical reporting. \u201cThis is a new tool being used against independent journalists to mentally exhaust them,\u201d Khattak said. Meanwhile, Nasir remains in limbo. With a wife undergoing cancer treatment and recent medical expenses of his own, he says he has had to rely on others\u2019 bank accounts to pay for urgent needs. \u201cWhat is my crime?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhy am I being punished?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAHORE(National Times)- A bird seller in Lahore never imagined that selling a few parrots would leave him unable to access his own money. In early April, sixty-year-old Nadeem Nasir discovered that his bank account had been blocked after repeated failed transactions. When he visited his bank, he was told the FIA Cyber Crime Wing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nHow FIA is freezing bank accounts over 'anti-state' content - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/107523\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How FIA is freezing bank accounts over 'anti-state' content - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LAHORE(National Times)- A bird seller in Lahore never imagined that selling a few parrots would leave him unable to access his own money. 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