Momina Iqbal's harassment case: Lahore court disposes of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar, wife's bail pleas as withdrawn

Momina Iqbal's harassment case: Lahore court disposes of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar, wife's bail pleas as withdrawn.

Key points

• Wajih Ahmad Sheikh Published September 3, 2026 Updated September 3, 2026 12: 47pm.
• The source continued that the Punjab Chief Minister's Office additionally wanted to clear its name after Iqbal's allegations against it.
• The IO had separately summoned Iqbal on September 1, according to the summon order seen by Dawn.
• A day after they recorded their statements, Iqbal filed an application with Lahore's Chung Police for the registration of a first information report against Chadhar.
• Wajih Ahmad Sheikh is a Lahore-based correspondent for Dawn with over two decades of experience covering legal affairs and judicial developments.

Wajih Ahmad Sheikh Published September 3, 2026 Updated September 3, 2026 12: 47pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

LAHORE: A Lahore court disposed of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar's and his wife's pre-arrest interim bail petitions as withdrawn on Thursday after the investigating officer remarked the arrest of the suspects was not required at the present stage in the case pertaining to television actor Momina Iqbal's alleged harassment.

Nevertheless, at the last hearing on July 28, then-investigating officer (IO), SHO Najam Bajwa from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), had informed the sessions court that Chadhar had been identified guilty after investigation.

But the new IO, Hassan Sajjad Naqvi, informed the court today that the investigation had changed and the suspects' arrest was not required at this stage.

Notably, the IO had separately summoned Iqbal on September 1, according to the summon order seen by Dawn.

According to Thebe order, the suspects had requested a re-investigation of the case on the "basis of some new defence evidence Accordingly, your statement regarding the fresh evidence has to recorded".

Iqbal was additionally present at the hearing, where the IO informed the court of the development.

After that, Chadhar and his wife withdrew their bail petitions, and the court subsequently disposed of the pleas as withdrawn.

In a social media post in May, Iqbal had alleged that she had been subjected to "online harassment, cyberbullying and death threats for a long time".

She asserted that both she and her family had suffered severe mental stress and trauma as of the alleged conduct of an MPA, without naming the accused.

"A member of the provincial assembly belonging to the PML-N has been threatening me for an extended period. I repeatedly documented the matter to the NCCIA and the Federal Investigation Agency, but no action was taken, " she stated.

Subsequently, the PML-N's "top leadership directed the NCCIA to immediately entertain the actor's complaint and initiate action against the ruling party MPA if the allegations are proven", a source had informed Dawn. The source continued that the Punjab Chief Minister's Office additionally wanted to clear its name after Iqbal's allegations against it.

After these developments, the NCCIA summoned Iqbal and Chadhar on May 21. The agency's Punjab head Muhammad Ali Waseem remarked the two were summoned after the NCCIA received Iqbal's complaint.

In practice, a day after they recorded their statements, Iqbal filed an application with Lahore's Chung Police for the registration of a first information report against Chadhar.

In her application, she alleged that the PML-N MPA had been making threatening calls to harass her and her fiance. After it transpired that he was already married to two women, she asserted that the lawmaker turned abusive when she refused his marriage proposal.

Subsequently, Chadhar began blackmailing her, she alleged, additionally mentioning WhatsApp messages and video calls from the suspect in her application. She further alleged that the MPA additionally sent the same threatening messages to her sister's mobile phone.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz additionally cautioned in a post on X that any attempt to exert political pressure, abuse influence, or exploit a woman by threatening to release "personal content" in the case involving Iqbal and Chadhar would be met with "firm and uncompromising action."

On June 4, the NCCIA registered a case against Chadhar on Iqbal's complaint under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber stalking) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, read with Sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 34 (acts done by a number of persons in furtherance of common intention) and 109 (punishment for abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is produced for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Wajih Ahmad Sheikh is a Lahore-based correspondent for Dawn with over two decades of experience covering legal affairs and judicial developments. He can be discovered on X at @wajihsheikh.

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