Daily Times

The law has spoken against the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 (PECA) on what can be called a very auspicious day for human rights and press freedom in Pakistan. Even a strong case involving the deleterious implication of “fake news” by those sitting at the helm was unable to move the Islamabad High Court in its favour, which unequivocally slammed the suppression of the fundamental right to freedom of speech as “unconstitutional and contrary to the demoratic values.”

The executive better get busy with the redrafting of the legislation giving due consideration to what has been enshrined in Articles 9, 14, 19 and 19-A while members of the press and the legal fraternity take out their boats and enjoy some well-earned margaritas.

It would be a hard job knocking down this judgement, which has, instead of going round in circles, landed a direct punch. No amount of public stunts or drawing parallels to American politics
can help justify what the presidential ordinance sought to destroy.

Having an eye at the individual reputation over the prestige of the entire fourth pillar of the state and treating any social media post (or a slight remark, for that matter) as a commando onslaught left no room for hard criticism whatsoever. How was the press expected to hold the cabinet’s feet to fire when one unpleasant report could get a five-year jail term? Going by the rumblings from the saner voices within (Federal Minister Syed Amin ul Haque’s letter to PM Khan, for instance), the legislation was standing on a slippery floor, to begin with.

The premier himself had broadcast his no-questions-asked resolve to protect media from the campaign trucks and he might have forgotten his golden words but the media suffers from a terrible case of photographic memory. Stifling the press just so to avoid a discomforting line of questioning or cobwebs from the past must have sounded like an incredible suggestion from an overambitious aide but sadly for the government, it cannot bend an institution whose editors would routinely send in blank spaces and get proudly flogged at the hands of a martial law administrator. No sacrifice is greater than the need to preserve the media’s integrity and its freedom. *