Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of Parliament on Friday unanimously passed the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB), 2016 after incorporating about 50 amendments.

In Clause 34 of the bill, a new sub-section was inserted, which states that an appeal against the decision of the authority in review will lie before the high court within 30 days of the order of the authority in review.

Another major amendment was that the agency designated or established under Section 26 of the law should submit a biannual report to both Houses of parliament for consideration by the relevant committee in-camera, in respect of its activities, without disclosing identity information.

The bill was moved by State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman, which was adopted by the House unanimously. The Senate session remained suspended for more than two hours, as the major opposition political party – Pakistan People’s Party – was reluctant to pass the bill in its current form.

However, the PPP agreed to support the bill after some 50 amendments were incorporated, which according to Aitzaz Ahsan, made the bill much better than the original one passed by the National Assembly.

“We can’t call it a perfect bill but it’s still far better than we’d received from the National Assembly. Both the law minister and Anusha Rehman were kind, who open heartedly accepted whatever amendment we wanted to incorporate,” he added.

Speaking in the House before the passage of the bill, Senator Col (r) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) said his party would abstain from voting on the bill, as no one from his party was invited to the meeting of opposition parties before presenting the bill in the House.

However, the MQM voted for the bill after Aitzaz Ahsan tendered an unconditional apology to Mashhadi for not inviting his party to the meeting that made a detailed deliberation on the bill before bringing it to the House for final approval.

According to the new law, any person found guilty of hate speech or trying to create disputes and spread hatred on the basis of religion or sectarianism can be sentenced to up to seven years or fined Rs 10 million, or both.

Moreover, up to three-year imprisonment, a fine of Rs 0.5 million, or both, have been proposed for cheating others through the Internet, while up to five-year imprisonment, Rs 5 million fine, or both, will be the punishment for transferring or copying of sensitive basic information.

The bill also suggests up to seven-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 0.5 million, or both, for anyone uploading obscene photos of children.

In addition to that, up to Rs 50,000 fine has been set for sending messages irritating to others or for marketing purposes. If the crime is repeated, the punishment would be three-month imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 1 million.

The law also suggests up to three-year imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 0.5 million for creating a website for negative purposes.

Up to one-year imprisonment or a fine of up to Rs 1 million has been set for forcing an individual for immoral activity, or publishing an individual’s picture without consent, sending obscene messages or unnecessary cyber interference.

It also says that if a person is found interfering in sensitive data information systems, he/she will be sentenced to up to seven years imprisonment, a fine of Rs 10 million, or both. Three-month imprisonment or a fine of Rs 50,000, or both, has been suggested for accessing unauthorised data.

The new law also suggests three-year imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 5 million for obtaining information about an individual’s identification, selling the information or retaining it with self.

Moreover, up to three-year imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs 0.5 million has been set for issuing a SIM card in an unauthorised manner.

According to the new bill, a person can be sentenced to three-year imprisonment and fined up to Rs 1 million for making changes to a wireless set or a cell phone.