A court in Islamabad has issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (a northwestern Pakistani province) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi after he repeatedly failed to appear in a case accusing him of making defamatory and misleading statements against state institutions via electronic media. Senior Civil Judge Abbas Shah warned that if Afridi does not appear at the next hearing on 3 September, authorities will move to declare him a proclaimed offender. The case was registered against him by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency under Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act.