KARACHI: A Pakistani court on Monday dismissed the case against an American FBI agent arrested for trying to board a plane while carrying ammunition, officials said.

The agent, identified by Pakistani officials as Joel Cox, was held at Karachi airport earlier this month when security staff found him carrying 15 rounds for a 9mm handgun during routine checks before a flight to the capital Islamabad.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation agent spent three days in custody before being released on $10,000 bail.

TV anchors told to respond to charges

A local court has asked a group of news anchors, a singer and a poet to respond to blasphemy charges following the airing of a controversial song-and-dance routine.

The show was aired last week by the Geo News network, which has been caught up in a struggle with the all-powerful military following the shooting of a star journalist who later accused the head of the intelligence services of being behind the attack.







In his petition, advocate Tariq Asad named not only the host of the show, who has already issued a public apology, but also the anchor of a rival program on the ARY channel for repeating the offending segment in an apparent effort to push for Geo’s closure.

“The hype was created by a host of a rival television channel who repeatedly telecast the song and in my view he is the real culprit,” he told AFP, referring to popular news anchor Mubasher Luqman.