Pakistan’s Recent PECA Amendments: A New Threat To Free Speech And Democracy – OpEd

The new Pakistan Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) amendments have raised a great deal of concern regarding the nation’s devotion to free speech and democracy. Although the amendments cut back the three-year imprisonment for spreading false information via the internet to three years, they are followed by a chain of contentious provisions that have triggered alarm at increasing repression of dissent and freedom of speech. The amendments invoked huge protests and outrage from journalists, civil society, and opposition forces, who branded the new laws as instruments of state oppression.

A Step Towards Greater Government Interference  

Four institutions will be created by the government through amendments: the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority, the National Cybercrime Investigation Authority, the Social Media Complaint Council, and the Social Media Protection Tribunal(s). They are to silence false news, but the open federal government process of selection has raised alarms of government intrusion and censorship.

These appeals will directly go to the Supreme Court and not to the high courts, and this has raised concerns from critics that this will be centralizing power and denying access to independent judicial appeals.

The new legislation also subjects those convicted of spreading false news on the internet to severe punishment, up to 2 million rupees (about $7,000). Although the actions might be seen as a move to limit the spread of false news, they also open doors for political and social activists, journalists, to be arrested in the guise of limiting the spread of false news.

A Suppression-of-Free-Speech Law  

Signed in 2016, PECA was signed into law initially to combat cyber crime, yet it has been characterized as one of the steps towards suppressing free speech for a number of decades. The bill has been criticized for containing extremely vague and broad language, which has been employed in harassing media professionals and journalists. Over 200 cases have been reported against journalists since its inception, and the majority of individuals convicted argue that the government is employing PECA in order to silence opposition voices.

The new amendments, the critics alleged, will again maximize the chocking effect of the law on freedom of expression. The Pakistan Human Rights Commission (HRCP) protested as a move toward direct violation of fundamental human rights. The HRCP noted that the three years’ imprisonment for broadcasting unsubstantiated news was disproportionate and sounded an alarm that four new watch-dogging institutions can be utilized to choke independent media.

Mass Protests and Increasing Resistance  

Journalists and media employees’ protests against the PECA amendments have been ongoing in Pakistan since they were implemented. Protests were held on January 28 in major cities across the country, demanding the bill be withdrawn. The PFUJ condemned the amendments as a “black law” that would silence the media and choke democratic rights.

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also extended its support in the form of protests, and it issued a solidarity statement for the PFUJ and appealed for the rollback of the legislation. The IFJ, while issuing a statement, referred to the need for safeguarding freedom of expression as an organic right.

Civil society organizations have also criticized the amendments, saying that they are a step backward. Human rights activist Ammar Ali Jan’s tweets asserted that PECA amendments were one of “many ways in which the government is attempting to criminalize dissent” and silence state critics.

Political parties on both sides of the political spectrum have also condemned the amendments. The opponents within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party have vowed to form a political alliance in order to vote against the law, stating that the law would be employed to harass civil society and the media.

That it occurred at this worst possible time is particularly shameful to Pakistan’s record regarding human rights in matters of freedom of expression and the press, too. In 2024, the country scored 152 out of a total of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, and the proposed amendments will certainly further tarnish its image globally.

Politicians, journalists, and even the ordinary citizen would be heavily penalized for the articulation of an opinion other than the one articulated by the state in the new PECA. The threat of ending up in prison or heavy punishment for simply disseminating information or criticism regarding the government would cause mass-level self-censorship, eliminating whatever is left of the freedom to discourse for the masses.

The government action also seems to go against Pakistan’s democratic tradition. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had criticized PECA in the previous government while his opposition party was in power, has been accused of hypocrisy after supporting the same contentious bill as a ruling party. His seeming u-turn has fueled rumors that the government is abusing the law to further centralize power and silence the opposition.

A Bad Precedent  

Pakistan’s media space is already under attack with routine suspension of the internet and rising restrictions on social media. The PECA amendments offer the window for the malevolent precedent by placing unchecked power in the hands of the state on the expression on the internet and transforming the law into a tool of muzzling the opposition voice against the regime.

As protest intensifies and demos mount, it was only time which could determine whether the law had been overturned or even modified so as to make speech as free. However, as increasing authoritarian bent dominates the Pakistani political arena, it is every reason to believe that the nation is being inched towards a trajectory of increasing state repression and control.