“The implementation of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) shows that while the state has ignored hate speech and religious extremism on the social media it has fallen with a heavy hand on those questioning the state narrative on security issues,” remarked Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Secretary-general and former senator, Farhatullah Babar, on Wednesday.
He was speaking at a round table on social media and democracy organized by Democracy Reporting International in a local hotel in Islamabad.
Babar noted that those challenging the state narrative on media had either faced disappearances or arrest by arbitrary interpretations of PECA.
A journalist in Balochistan was said to be arrested recently under PECA allegedly for questioning the protection money charged from the private mine owners.
He was later set free after the Senate Information Committee took notice, he added.
The PPP leader remarked that PECA mandated the investigation agency, FIA, to place its report before the parliament every six months. This was not being done because it could result in exposing the gross misapplication of the law, he maintained.
The 2016 Act was now being further amended by adding six more clauses to deal with the dissemination of content outraging religious feelings of anyone; defiling of a copy of the Holy Quran; blasphemy; derogatory remarks in respect of holy personages and even someone calling himself Muslim if he was not one, Babar informed.
He was of the view that all six offences were already present in the Pakistan Penal Code and there remained no need to include them in electronic crimes law.
Complications arise when an offence is mentioned in two different laws, he said.
PPP secretary-general also demanded that rules and regulations under PECA should be framed. He called for a thorough parliamentary debate on the operation of the law during the past 30 months so as to identify its shortcomings and their subsequent removal through suitable amendments.
The seminar was also addressed by former senator, Afrasiab Khattak, a former member of the National Assembly, Bushra Gohar, and others.