KARACHI: Pakistani IT minister Syed Aminul Haque on Wednesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan asking him to withdraw a controversial amendment to the country’s cybercrime law that was approved by the president last week to enhance jail terms for social media users convicted of disseminating “fake news.”
Haque’s letter came to the fore as the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday restrained the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from arresting people under Section 20 of the recently promulgated Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act Ordinance 2022, which criminalizes ““defamatory” and “fake” content on social media and is widely viewed as a tool to silence critics of the government.
President Dr. Arif Alvi promulgated the ordinance on Sunday to amend the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA).
The new ordinance introduces an amendment to section 20 of PECA 2016, which was passed during the government of former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). It increases the jail term for defaming any person or institution on social media from two to five years and makes it mandatory for courts to decide cases within six months. The offense has also been made non-bailable.
Almost all of Pakistan’s opposition parties and journalist unions have opposed the new law, which has also been challenged in court. The government denies it wants to censor the press or political opponents.
“The announcements of the amendments have drawn widespread condemnation and ire of media bodies and the journalistic community as a whole.” Haque’s letter to the PM said. “Their view is that the amendments were drafted without constructive consultation with the relevant stakeholders.”
This undated file photo shows Pakistan's IT minister Syed Aminul Haque. (Photo courtesy: Social Media)
He called on the PM “to pay heed to the unanimous voice of protest against the PECA amendments and launch a consultative process with civil society as well as the media community at the earliest.”
“It’s only through dialogue and deliberation that media probationers and the government can establish procedures to curtail fake news, and I urge you to launch this process at the earliest and withdraw/review the ordinance,” Haque concluded.
Meanwhile, while hearing a petition against the ordinance filed by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and other media bodies, Islamabad high court chief justice Athar Minallah issued a notice to the attorney general and directed the interior secretary and director general of the federal investigation agency not to arrest anyone under the new law.
“Chief justice Athar Minallah, while summoning the attorney general on next hearing, that’s tomorrow, suspended the implementation over the PECA ordinance 2022, after hearing our arguments,” Shakeel Ahmed, president of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) told Arab News.
“Our counsel, Adil Aziz Qazi, submitted that a session of the national assembly was scheduled for February 18 but was ended to pave ways for bringing an ordinance instead, which no one would have allowed to pass,” Ahmed said, adding that after hearing the petition, the chief justice not only suspended the implementation of the new ordinance but said the secretary interior and DG FIA would be responsible if anyone was arrested under the new law.
Speaking to Arab News, GM Jamali, president of his own faction of the Pakistan’s Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ), said he moved the court against a law that he believed was aimed at “snatching freedom of press and freedom of expression.”
“We are not against any legislation to deal with the issue of fake news, but the new amendments, which were brought through an ordinance instead of conducting any debate in the parliament and without doing any consultation with representatives of the journalists, were clearly badly intended and aimed at silencing the critics and suppress the press,” Jamali argued.
“This is a victory for the entire journalist’s fraternity,” Jamali added, commenting on the court’s suspension of the new law. “The decision has reposed the trust of people in judiciary, which they believe will protect them from the government’s actions under draconian laws.”
The major opposition PPP and PML-N political parties have also opposed the amendment, with PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, callig it the “fascist face” of the ruling clique.
Top bar associations in the country have also unanimously rejected the amendments, calling the new legislation an attempt to “stifle dissent and freedom of expression.”
In a statement, the Supreme Court Bar Association said: “Under the guise of PECA Ordinance, the ruling elite has once again launched a vicious agenda to cut-throat its political opponents and to silence all those who believe in freedom of speech, opinion and expression so as to hide its failure.”
