After securing protective bail from the Islamabad High Court (IHC), content creators Rajab Butt and Nadeem Mubarak, also known as Nani Wala, are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday night to surrender to the authorities in ongoing legal cases.
The content creators are no strangers to legal trouble. In September this year, Butt was booked by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) for allegedly promoting online gambling apps on social media.
Nadeem was also booked by the NCCIA for allegedly promoting gambling apps on his social media, but he was also arrested in September for displaying a fake registration number – ‘IK-804’ – on his car. On being quizzed, he couldn’t satisfy the police with regard to displaying the fake registration number, IK-804, which is said to be the prisoner number allotted to incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan.
The two, who are travelling from London, are set to arrive at Islamabad Airport later tonight and are expected to surrender themselves on December 10 (tomorrow).
The court has granted protective bail till tomorrow, in response to a petition filed by Butt and Mubarak’s relatives, to ensure the content creators are not arrested on arrival.
“The accused (Rajab Butt and Nadeem Mubarak) shall not be arrested upon landing at Islamabad Airport until he surrenders before this court on the date fixed,” the orders read.
Meanwhile, Mian Ali Ashfaq, who represents the Butt, clarified that the Youtuber had not been deported from the UK and was returning to Pakistan of his own free will.
“He has left the UK on his own independent choice to return to Pakistan and has already surrendered before the Islamabad High Court today and by doing such, he’s granted access to reach … Islamabad without any hindrance by or from any administrative authority requiring him in any criminal case,” Ashfaq wrote on X.
In March, Butt was also booked under blasphemy and cybercrime laws due to a “religious stir” caused by the launch of his perfume brand that allegedly mocked Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Butt launched his “295” perfume, which refers to the namesake blasphemy law in the Pakistan Penal Code.
Last December, the Youtuber found himself in legal trouble when he was arrested for illegally keeping a lion cub and weapons at his residence. He pleaded guilty in January this year to owning an undocumented wild animal after accepting the cub as a wedding gift.
He avoided jail by promising a judge to post animal rights videos for a year.
The number of Pakistan-based content creators on YouTube earning over Rs10 million annually saw a 25 per cent increase, while over 65pc of the watch time on Pakistani content came from viewers outside the country.
A statement quoting Google Country Director Farhan Qureshi stated that Pakistani creators were showing their ability to speak to a global audience.
The list, released by Google in December last year, spanned three categories — Top Trending Videos, Top Music Videos, and Top Creators.
