Journalist Farhan Mallick slammed with alleged fraud case, remanded to FIA

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate in Malir on Wednesday granted a five-day physical remand of journalist Farhan Malik to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with an alleged ‘fraud’ case. This will be the second case in less than a week on the senior journalist who was detained on March 20, the first being on ‘anti-state’ content.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), FIA conducted a raid on March 25 at a call center in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 13-C, where agents were reportedly engaged in fraudulent activities. The raid led to the arrest of two suspects, Ather Hussain and Hassan Najeeb, who were allegedly involved in scamming foreign nationals. The FIR states that the suspects used specialised software to obtain confidential data from foreign nationals. During interrogation, the arrested individuals claimed that the operation was being run on the instructions of Farhan Gohar Malik.

Journalist Farhan Mallick faces court over ‘anti-state’ content

Following their statements, the FIA took Farhan Malik into custody and presented him before the judicial magistrate, who has now granted a five-day remand for further investigation.

The FIA maintains that the suspects are involved in fraud and cyber-related crimes, while authorities continue to probe the extent of the operation.

‘Fraud’ case dubbed baseless by lawyer

Farhan Mallick’s lawyer, Abdul Moiz Jafferi called the allegation ridiculous. According to his tweets FIA had kept him in custody in violation of court orders yesterday, and today they ‘sprung a surprise by presenting Farhan Mallick in the Malir court with a new FIR.’

“According to the new FIR; yesterday morning at the same time that the FIA was preparing to present FM in the old FIR and ask for further remand which they knew to be unlikely, in a beautiful coincidence they discovered a couple of credit card fraudsters who run a scam company out of a call center where they make “spoof calls” and con people out of their credit card confidential details and money.

These accused realised on the morning that FM was to be presented in court that their entire operation is being run by Farhan Mallick. So the FIA needs to investigate him. We made it there on time and argued for his discharge from this ridiculous allegation. The FIA lawyer wanted FM because he had found “materials which need to be investigated”. The judge was pleased to allow the FIA five days to detain FM and investigate,” the tweet read.

Jafferi lamented that this was an ‘achivement locked because Farhan Mallick’s Eid has now been ruined: FM’s Eid ruined: “This is the 90’s bheins chori/“illegal weapon found under the bed” version of abuse of state power in 2025.

Remember, they promised PECA wasn’t amended for journalists. It wasn’t. It was amended for everyone. Stray from the path of what they think is righteous, and whether you are a journalist, a lawyer or a professor, we are going to call you a credit card fraudster so we can use process as punishment.” he added.

According to Raftar’s X formerly Twitter Farhan Mallick was due to be transferred to judicial custody as per a court order, but the FIA authorities deliberately delayed his transfer, keeping him in their custody without notifying the judicial authorities.

“His family, unaware of his whereabouts, searched across the city and various jails while FIA withheld information. It has now come to light that, on the very same day Mr. Mallick’s first remand was transferred for bail, the FIA filed a new, baseless case against him — accusing a journalist of 22 years of running a call spoofing operation. This is nothing but targeted harassment.

Since this morning, our legal team @Jaferii has been forced to chase a deliberately confusing legal process. The FIA provided no clear information on where the hearing would take place. It was only at the last minute—through an unreliable source—that we discovered it was being held at Malir Court. Our lawyer rushed there just in time to argue against this blatant fabrication. Despite this, the FIA has now been granted a 5-day remand,” the tweet read.

It further stated that it was a systemic effort to throttle the voice of an ‘integrity-driven journalist’ and a direct attack on every single person who dares to speak the truth in this country.

Farhan Mallick detained for ‘anti-state’ posts

On March 21, Farhan Mallick, appeared in court on Friday on charges of “anti-state posts and fake news” under toughened legislation targeting online content.

The court remanded Farhan Mallick, head of the Raftar channel, in custody for three days, his media outlet reported on social media platform X.

The charge sheet seen by AFP shows he was detained under a revised law targeting people “intentionally disseminating” information that is “fake or likely to spread fear.”

The revised legislation carries a prison term of up to three years and prompted journalist protests when it was approved in January.

“At this stage, no concrete evidence has been presented to substantiate the anti-state allegations against Mr. Mallick or Raftar,” read an online statement by the channel, which primarily publishes podcasts and analyzes of current affairs.