ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday challenged the decision of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (PEC) Court for not transferring the judgevideoscandalcase tothe Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC).

The FIA filed the appeal before the Islamabad High Court (IHC), saying that the special judge of Prevention of PEC Court `has no jurisdiction to entertain the report under section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (commonly known as challan) or try the same in any manner`.

The Prevention of Electronic Crimes judge, Tahir Mehmood Khan, has rejected the application filed by the CounterTerrorism Wing (CTW) of the FIA seeking transfer of the judge video scandal case to the ATC.Initially, former accountability court judge Mohammad Arshad Malik registered a complaint with the Cyber Crimes Wing of the FIA against PML-N activists for blackmailing him.

However, after the Cyber Crimes Wing discharged three accused Nasir Janjua, Khurram Yousaf and Mahar Ghulam Jilani, judge Malik submitted an application before the FIA director general for transferring the investigation to the CounterTerrorism Wing.

According to the appeal of the FIA before the IHC, `there was sufficient incriminating material` against the three accused but the Cyber Crimes Wing discharged them because of faulty investigation.

It said that an application was filed before the PEC judge which contended that since Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) had been invokedagainst the accused, therefore, the matter may be transferred to the ATC.

It further said the PEC judge dismissed the application and ordered the prosecution to submit final challan before his court on October 31.

The FIA pointed out in the appeal that after insertion of Section 7 of ATA, offences triable under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) are to be jointly tried by the ATC.

It said that the `observation and reasoning mentioned in the impugned order to dismiss the application is against the clear and settled principles and scheme of law` The investigation agency requested the IHC to set aside the PEC court order and issued direction to the judge to return the interim challan submitted to the court of judge Tahir Mehmood Khan so it can be resubmitted to the ATC.