NCCIA Probe Clears PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar, Wife in Momina Iqbal Harassment Case
LAHORE, PAKISTAN — WEB DESK: A joint investigation team constituted by Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has cleared PML-N Punjab Assembly member Saqib Chadhar and his wife in its latest investigation into allegations of harassment and death threats made by actor Momina Iqbal, a Lahore court was told on Thursday. The complainant’s lawyer challenged the findings and raised questions over how the investigation was conducted.
The development emerged during proceedings before Additional Sessions Judge Nusrat Siddiqui, where an NCCIA investigating officer told the court that Chadhar and his wife were not required to be arrested at the current stage and that the fresh investigation had found them innocent.
Following the investigating officer’s statement, Chadhar and his wife withdrew their interim pre-arrest bail petitions. The court subsequently disposed of the applications as withdrawn.
NCCIA Changed Investigation Team
The investigating officer told the court that the NCCIA had changed the investigation and constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) to conduct a fresh probe into the case.
That detail is particularly significant because an earlier NCCIA investigation had reached a different conclusion.
On July 28, an NCCIA official told the same Lahore sessions court that an investigation had found Chadhar responsible for harassing Iqbal. At that stage, the agency said the investigation against the lawmaker had been completed, while his wife’s mobile phone had been sent for forensic examination.
Thursday’s development therefore represents a reversal in the investigating agency’s assessment after the probe was changed and a new team constituted.
It should not, however, be described as a court acquittal.
The latest finding was presented by the investigating officer to the court; the court did not conduct a trial and issue a judgment acquitting Chadhar and his wife of the allegations.
Momina Iqbal’s Lawyer Challenges Findings
Iqbal appeared in court with her lawyer Adnan Ehsan, while Barrister Mian Ali Ashfaq represented Chadhar.
Iqbal’s counsel objected to the new investigation report, arguing that the NCCIA had changed the investigation without informing or taking the complainant into confidence.
He questioned how the new investigating officer could clear the accused without, in his view, completing a comprehensive investigation.
Those objections mean the latest NCCIA findings remain contested by the complainant.
The lawyer’s assertion that the new inquiry was incomplete is his legal position and has not been established as a judicial finding.
Case Registered in June
The NCCIA registered the case in early June after Iqbal filed a complaint alleging cyber harassment, blackmail, intimidation and threats.
According to the FIR, Iqbal alleged that Chadhar, his wife and other known and unknown associates had engaged in a sustained campaign of cyber harassment, stalking, intimidation, blackmail, defamation and unlawful surveillance targeting her and her family.
Iqbal further alleged that Chadhar became threatening after she rejected a marriage proposal upon discovering he was already married. She accused him of threatening to disclose private material and of targeting her family and fiancé. These remain allegations contained in the complaint and FIR, not established facts.
Chadhar has previously rejected the allegations.
In a statement submitted to the NCCIA in June, he described the accusations as false and unfounded and presented his own account of his past relationship with Iqbal. His counter-allegations likewise remain claims rather than judicially established facts.
Earlier Probe and Fresh JIT Reached Different Conclusions
The procedural history is central to understanding Thursday’s development.
In June and July, Chadhar and his wife obtained and subsequently received extensions to interim pre-arrest bail while the NCCIA investigated the complaint.
By late July, an NCCIA official told the court that the investigation had found Chadhar responsible for the alleged harassment.
The agency subsequently changed the investigation and formed a JIT, according to the investigating officer’s statement on Thursday. That fresh probe reached the opposite conclusion and found that the arrests of Chadhar and his wife were not required.
The withdrawal of their bail applications followed that assessment.
This procedural sequence makes it important to avoid treating either investigative conclusion as equivalent to a final criminal judgment.
What the Latest Development Means
The immediate legal development is that the latest NCCIA investigation has cleared Chadhar and his wife and does not currently seek their arrest, while their interim bail applications have been disposed of after being withdrawn.
It does not mean a trial court has acquitted the couple after evaluating the evidence in a full criminal trial.
Similarly, the original allegations against them should not be repeated as established conduct merely because an FIR was registered.
Iqbal’s counsel has challenged the new investigative process and findings, leaving the dispute over the handling of the case unresolved.
The case is therefore best characterised as an investigative and court update: an earlier NCCIA inquiry implicated Chadhar, a newly constituted investigation team has now cleared him and his wife, and the complainant has formally objected to that reversal.
