The Canadian University of Toronto PhD student who was arrested while conducting research for his dissertation in Pakistan has been denied bail.
Hamza Ahmed Khan’s brother, Awes Ahmed Khan, said the entire week was emotionally draining, as his family met with lawyers, travelled from office to office and attended the bail hearing Friday.
“There is no reason to keep him behind bars. It feels like the system wants to punish him before a trial,” he said. “We’ve not slept properly in a week.”
Ahmed Khan, a dual Canadian-Pakistani citizen, travelled to Pakistan in December to interview experts on the politics of democracy promotion in Muslim-majority societies. His family says he went missing on Feb. 19 and has been in Lahore district jail since Feb. 21.
Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) detained Ahmed Khan for alleged infractions of the country’s 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. In its official report, the NCCIA said it found, during one of its routine patrols, that Ahmed Khan’s X and Instagram accounts were “disseminating misinformation and disinformation targeting state institutions.”
The family’s lawyer, Asad Jamal, said the decision to deny Ahmed Khan bail was based on precedential cases that don’t match this specific one.
“We were disappointed,” he said.
CBC Toronto reached out to the NCCIA for comment.
U of T student jailed in Pakistan for social media content
In the court’s order, judicial magistrate Muhammad Naeem Wattoo said allegations of such “derogatory and malicious campaigns” aimed at the state “cannot be treated as trivial or casual matters.”
“In the digital era, dissemination of inflammatory content through social media platforms produces instantaneous and far-reaching consequences,” he said. “Therefore, such allegations require serious judicial consideration and cannot be brushed aside lightly.”
Wattoo added there is a difference between “ordinary criticism” and “conduct capable of disturbing public order and national cohesion.”
“The possibility of tampering with electronic evidence or repetition of similar activity cannot be ruled out at this stage,” he said.
Awes disputes this, noting his brother shared ideas with a few dozen followers on a public platform created for free speech and discussion.
“The system should not punish speech and ideas,” he said. “If critical posts about human rights [or] government policies will lead to people being given jail time without due fair process, then it affects everybody’s ability to speak freely, not just Hamza’s.”
The X account associated with Ahmed Khan in the case has approximately 15,700 followers.
Awes added he doesn’t understand the fear of tampering with evidence.
“If you say something, share something, you cannot just change it out there,” he told CBC Toronto. “This is completely unjust.”
Jamal says the family has filed a bail petition in the district court, after which they’ll turn to Pakistan’s high court if they are unsuccessful. But Jamal isn’t hopeful about district court.
“There is a fair chance that the bail petition may be dismissed,” he said.
Pakistan has been under a cycle of military dictatorships and weak civilian governance for decades, said McMaster University professor Ahmed Shafiqul Huque. He said Field Marshal Asim Munir recently granted himself lifelong immunity and increased his authority.
“This by default imposes limitations on the power of the court,” he said. “The courts themselves will find it difficult to operate in their normal manner with this kind of a power framework imposed on them. So the situation, I would say, is not very encouraging.”
Shafiqul Huque says the military has become the most powerful institution in the country.
“[They are] able to call the shots even in the presence of an elected legislature, cabinet of ministers and the office of a Prime Minister,” he said.
That will be hard to stop, especially as conservative governments have generally received “continuous support from the U.S.,” Shafiqul Huque said.
“The U.S. probably feels more acutely that they need to continue their hold on these countries,” he said. “They do not want to see even a small degree of socialist ideas emerging.”
Awes says his family is composed of doctors and engineers, none of whom have ever been convicted of a felony.
“The one thing that’s held us together is Hamza’s own resolve and how he’s actually giving us hope from, from behind that glass wall,” he said.
“The one thing that kept him [going] through those days of abduction was closing [his] eyes and thinking of [our mom], of being able to see her after this hell he’s been through.”
