Sania Ashiq Jabeen seeks legal respite from cyber trolls

After Zubair Umar, another PML-N politician becomes victim to inappropriate trolling

Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Sania Ashiq Jabeen has sought legal redress after cyber harassment against her reared its ugly head with trolls making immoral remarks on pictures of herself with her late father.

A Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member, Jabeen posted a copy of the letter she submitted to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), in which she filed a complaint against online trolling from both official and shady accounts.

Addressing FIA’s additional director in her letter, Jabeen detailed that there was a deep harassment campaign against her that spanned across multiple social media platforms. She said that an image in which she was pictured with her father mere hours before his demise, were doctored to give them a ‘sexual meaning’. She furthered that she received unwanted, abhorrent calls from unknown numbers.

The MPA insisted that she was entitled to legal protection as a public office holder and that the harassment had caused damage to her reputation and undue stress for her and her loved ones. Jabeen requested that action be taken against the alleged absconders under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and the Pakistan Penal Code.

Jabeen furthered that the situation she was in only strengthened her belief in divine justice. She cited former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s example and said that he too left his fate in God’s hands. The MPA said that the actions against her proved that she was on the ‘right path’ and declared a renewed commitment to her party leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

The young politician has been subjected to intense online abuse and trolling after obscene videos surfaced with the allegation that she was featured in them.

This wasn’t the only incident in recent weeks in which a politician was left to the mercy of vicious trolls. PML-N’s Zubair Umar also became the target of online harassment after alleged inappropriate videos of him emerged on social media last month.