Lt-Gen (retd) Naveed Zaman – the NUST Rector – has filed a defamation case against 20 people under Sections 20 and 37 of Cybercrimes Act 2016, which carried a three-year jail term and one million rupees fine.

In this connection, the retired general said he had been facing the insulting attitude despite the fact that the then ISPR DG had refuted the allegations in 2016, describing the same as fabricated and baseless.

Moreover, he had filed a complaint with the FIA in 2017 over the issue but no action had so far been taken and defamation campaign was still continuing with brief intervals.

According to Lt-Gen (retd) Naveed, he has recently filed a case against these people. Some of them are affiliated with anti-state elements while some has their own personal agenda with a few belonging to a particular political party. Some of them are busy in spewing venom from abroad. Even some Indian websites too has started playing a role in this episode.

The objective behind this campaign is a textbook definition of the fifth-generation war which is to defame the Pakistan Army leadership by targeting the senior military officers individually or collectively, creating a gulf between the armed forces and the people as well as between military officers and the army chief for ultimately weakening the armed forces and Pakistan to fulfil the designs of their foreign masters.

Lt-Gen Naveed said the state had been showing leniency in taking legal action against these people which resulted in intensifying the campaign.

He expressed the hope that the relevant quarters would deal with such elements with an iron hand and punish them accordingly. Moreover, the social media accounts spreading insulting the content must also be dealt with according to law before irreversible damage was caused to Pakistan and its respectable institutions, noted Lt-Gen Naveed.