An FIR was registered against Engineer Mirza for blasphemy after the Punjab Police refused to arrest him.

Jhelum: Punjab police on Wednesday denied the arrest of engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza, despite a blasphemy complaint being registered against the religious scholar at the Jhelum police station.

This followed days of confusion over his status, after authorities previously claimed his arrest was based solely on public order laws.

Until Tuesday, police had maintained that Mirza was not in custody, but was being held under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), citing threats of communal unrest. At the time, police insisted that no criminal case had been registered against him.

However, that same evening, a complaint was filed under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) of 2016. Prison sentences and fines are provided for content that promotes communal, interfaith, or racial hatred.

According to the complaint, the charge allegedly centers on a video uploaded to Mirza's YouTube channel, which has over 3 million subscribers, in which he is accused of using derogatory language about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and distorting verses from Surah An-Nisa. The complainant claimed that the video was widely circulated online.

Mirza was arrested by Jhelum police on Monday under the Mobile Protection Order (MPO), which allows authorities to preemptively detain individuals to protect public safety. Following the complaint, police also closed his Quran and Sunnah Research Academy in Jhelum.

The case has reignited debate over Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which human rights groups and legal experts have long called vulnerable to abuse, often fueling sectarian tensions and exposing defendants to mob violence.