Daily Times

The federal cabinet has given approval for a presidential ordinance to amend the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry told a private TV channel on Saturday.

He said the approval for the ordinance was obtained through circulation. Under the amendments, defaming individuals on social media would be declared a punishable offence and courts would be obliged to give a verdict on cases registered under PECA within six months, he added.

Earlier in the day, Fawad Ch said that two important legislations had been sent to the federal cabinet for approval, which would allow the parliamentarians to participate in the election campaign and declare online defamation a punishable offense. Under the first law, he said in a tweet, it had been proposed to allow the parliamentarians’ participation in the election campaign. While in the second law, it had been suggested declaring the defamation of people on social media a punishable offense. In the law related to online public defamation, he said, it had been made mandatory for the courts to decide the case within six months.

In November 2020, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government framed social media laws under PECA, drawing criticism from digital rights activists, the Internet Service Providers of Pakistan and the Asia Internet Coalition, who had termed the laws draconian.

Tech companies had also threatened to discontinue their services in Pakistan if the rules were not amended, saying the regulations would make it difficult for them to continue their operations.

The rules were also challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). During one of the hearings on the petition, the attorney general had assured the IHC that the government was ready to review the rules. In March 2021, Prime Minister Imran Khan had constituted an inter-ministerial committee to review the controversial social media rules. The committee had prepared the rules by August and they were passed by the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases on September 23.

The federal cabinet had approved the amendments to digital media rules on September 29 and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had notified them on November 14. The Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules, 2021, allowed the telecom regulator in the country to block any website or platform on the directives of court and federal government or under any law.

On the other hand, a private TV channel reported that the federal cabinet has amended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) code of conduct, paving the way for ministers and the parliamentarians to run election campaigns of their favourite candidates in the country. “All the political parties had reservations over the code of conduct introduced by the ECP,” reports said, adding that the government has decided to amend the ECP’s code of conduct through a presidential ordinance.

On February 7, the ECP had disqualified Umar Amin Gandapur, brother of Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur, from contesting local government elections for violating the code of conduct announced by the commission for the local government elections in the province. However, on the next day, the Islamabad High Court had suspended the ECP’s order to disqualify Umar Amin Gandapur from contesting the polls. The ECP had also directed federal minister Ali Amin Gandapur not to attend any political gathering or corner meeting till the culmination of the polls. Moreover, the ECP had also imposed a fine of Rs 40,000 on a Member of the National Assembly belonging JUI-F for violating the code of conduct for the elections as he addressed a press conference in favour of his party’s candidate for Dera Ismail Khan city council.