ISLAMABAD: The federal government has declared YouTuber Adil Farooq Raja, who can also be a former Pakistan Military officer and presently resides in the UK, a proscribed individual beneath the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
“The federal authorities has affordable grounds to consider that Mr. Adil Farooq Raja has been demonstrating his sustained involvement in actions posing a critical menace to the safety, integrity, and public order of Pakistan.
“He has persistently misused on-line platforms to advertise, facilitate, and amplify anti-state narratives and propaganda related to proscribed terrorist organizations, thereby appearing in a way prejudicial to the sovereignty and protection of Pakistan,” learn the notification declaring the YouTuber a proscribed individual.
The notification was issued by the inside ministry and is dated December 27.
It mentioned, “In train of powers conferred by Part 11ee of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, the federal authorities is happy to direct to listing Mr. Adil Farooq Raja within the Fourth Schedule to the mentioned Act as a proscribed individual for the needs of the mentioned Act.”
The notification was issued after the federal cupboard authorized the abstract for Raja’s proscription, the abstract for which had been submitted by the inside ministry on December 23.
The event got here roughly 20 days after Inside Minister Mohsin Naqvi handed over the extradition papers for Raja — who has positioned himself as a whistleblower — former particular assistant to the prime minister Shahzad Akbar to UK Excessive Commissioner Jane Marriott.
Previous to that, Naqvi had introduced a crackdown on these concerned in faux information, declaring that the federal government would repatriate from the UK YouTubers concerned on this exercise or the concentrating on of state establishments.
Raja had reacted to the event in a submit on X, saying: “They might name the British Excessive Commissioner to complain, however such a criticism is itself illegal beneath UK statutes, as we’ve dedicated no wrongdoing.”
On December 10, Raja had additionally been ordered to pay £350,000 in damages and authorized prices after a London excessive court docket dominated that he had defamed a former intelligence officer with unfounded allegations of corruption and electoral interference.
In 2023, Raja was handed 14 years of jail sentence following his Subject Common Courtroom Martial for “inciting sedition” and stripped of his army rank.
Whereas the army’s media affairs wing didn’t instantly hyperlink the convictions to the occasions of Could 9, Raja and Mehdi had been accused by the Islamabad police of taking part in a major position in fomenting revolt and inciting assaults on army installations throughout widespread protests that adopted PTI chief Imran Khan’s arrest on that day.
