The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Wednesday issued a summons notice to journalist Asad Ali Toor for an inquiry into alleged dissemination of false information by him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The notice, available with Dawn<\/em>, named the state as the complainant against Toor for \u201calleged dissemination, transmission and\/or public exhibition of false\/fake information\u201d. It was issued on a complaint filed under Section 26A (punishment for false and fake information) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (Peca).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The journalist was directed to appear before the NCCIA Cybercrime Reporting Centre in Islamabad at 11am on July 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NCCIA warned that failure to appear \u201cwithout lawful excuse shall be deemed as your unwillingness to offer any defence, and the inquiry will proceed\u201d in his absence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It added that non-compliance with the notice would be punishable under Section 174 (non-attendance in obedience to an order from public servant) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toor, in a post on X, also shared the notice alongside poetry by revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNCCIA has summoned me on this Friday, July 31, 2026 on the complaint of the state,\u201d Toor wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The National Press Club (NPC) in Islamabad condemned the NCCIA notice, expressing alarm at the state of press freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asserting that the right to freedom of expression was a constitutional right, NPC leadership said, \u201cSubjecting journalists to legal pressure and retaliation for performing their professional duties or expressing critical opinions is not a good omen for any democratic society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NPC urged institutions to play their respective roles in accordance with law, constitution and fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFree, responsible and safe journalism is the foundation of a strong democratic system,\u201d NPC said, demanding that notice be withdrawn and the \u201cconstitutional and legal rights\u201d of journalists be respected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It warned against steps curtailing freedom of the press and fostering \u201cinsecurity among the journalist community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toor was also arrested<\/u><\/a> in 2024 over charges under the Peca for allegedly launching a malicious campaign against state institutions, a move which drew criticism from the media fraternity. He was later released.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Wednesday issued a summons notice to journalist Asad Ali Toor for an inquiry into alleged dissemination of..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830.png",491,493,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830.png",491,493,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830.png",491,493,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830.png",491,493,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-30-071830.png",491,493,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8375,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8374\/revisions\/8375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}