Pakistani court grants bail to Canadian scholar in cybercrime case

A Pakistani court has granted post-arrest bail to a Canadian national and Pakistani Ph.D. scholar in a cybercrime case, weeks after he was taken into custody.

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday allowed the bail petition of Hamza Ahmad Khan, who is facing charges under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016.

The case was registered in late February by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). Authorities alleged that Khan made anti-state posts on social media platforms X and Instagram.

Khan had earlier been denied post-arrest bail by a judicial magistrate and a sessions court. He subsequently approached the Lahore High Court for relief.

Justice Muhammad Waheed Khan heard the petition and granted bail, subject to the submission of surety bonds worth PKR 200,000.

Advocate Asad Jamal represented the petitioner and completed his arguments before the court.

According to the bail petition, the sequence of events surrounding the case raised questions about the legality and transparency of the investigation.

The defense argued that the case was false and manufactured with malicious intent to involve Khan in what it described as unjust and unfair legal proceedings.

The lawyer told the court that the petitioner had not committed any criminal offense under the law. He maintained that the case lacked merit and was based on dishonesty.

The counsel further argued that the grant of bail is a right, while refusal is an exception, particularly when the prosecution does not have conclusive evidence to substantiate the allegations.

He also submitted that there was no likelihood Khan would tamper with evidence, which he said had already been collected by the prosecution.

Court proceedings took place amid questions over the circumstances of Khan’s disappearance earlier this year.

According to the complaint, Khan arrived in Pakistan on Feb. 13 to work on his Ph.D. thesis. He was staying in Phase 10 of Lahore’s Defense Housing Authority, a residential area in the eastern city of Lahore.

The complainant stated that Khan left his residence between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Feb. 19 after booking a ride to an unspecified location and did not return.

Friends were unable to trace his whereabouts despite searching for him, the complaint said.

A kidnapping case was filed against unidentified suspects a day before Khan appeared in NCCIA custody on Feb. 23.

It was not immediately clear from court proceedings how Khan came into the agency’s custody.

The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 governs cybercrime offenses in Pakistan, including online speech and social media activity.