Can FIA file case against Google, wonders LHC

Hearing a petition against the government’s failure in removing blasphemous material on the internet, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Monday asked a federal law officer if the FIA had the jurisdiction to lodge a case against Google.

Several officials of the FIA were present in the court in compliance with the chief justice’s direction issued on the previous hearing. To a court’s query, a deputy attorney general admitted that the FIA was responsible to take action against the objectionable and blasphemous material available on the internet. The chief justice observed that the situation was getting worse day by day. “What kind of Riasat-i-Madina it is that the basic responsibility is not being fulfilled”? the chief justice wondered. He observed that the FIA should establish a wing to exclusively deal with the blasphemous material. The chief justice asked the law officer as to what action the FIA could take if someone from outside the country was involved in spreading blasphemous material on the internet. He also directed the law officer to assist on a point whether the FIA could register a case against Google if any blasphemous material was not removed. The chief justice would resume hearing on December 30 at the Multan bench of the LHC. Advocate Azhar Haseeb filed the petition seeking a direction for the government to get the name of the leader of Ahmadi community as caliph of Islam removed from the Google.

The lawyer pleaded that when an internet user writes “who is present caliph of Islam” in the Google search engine, the name of the Ahmadi community’s leader appears in the answer. He argues that the law does not allow the Ahmadi community to preach but it has been doing the same through the internet.