ISLAMABAD – Days after Imran Khan-led government made amendments in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) ordinance, the Islamabad High Court earlier today restrained the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from making arrests under the controversial act.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah ordered the federal agency not to arrest people while hearing a petition filed by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
The court issued a notice to the attorney general, seeking a response from him tomorrow while it added that Director general FIA and home secretary will bear the brunt in case of any violation by the agency.
Justice Minallah remarked that the state-run agency already submitted a document of its standard operating procedures (SOPs), stipulating that no arrests will be made under section 20 of the ordinance. Countries like Zimbabwe and Uganda were also removing defamation from their criminal law, the judge mentioned.
The development comes after Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists lawyer Adil Aziz Qazi said that the National Assembly session scheduled for February 18 was delayed just to pass the ordinance to regulate social media.
The controversial ordinance was challenged by Muhammad Ayyub who said that the president promulgated the PECA amendment ordinance with “mala fide intention and for ulterior motive to harass and blackmail the opposition as well as the public at large”.
PTI-led government comes under criticism as under the PECA ordinance, the definition of a “person” has been broadened to include any company, association, institution, organization, authority, or any other. Furthermore, anyone found guilty of attacking a person’s “identity” will now be sentenced to five years instead of three years.
Further, the complainant has been defined as the aggrieved person, his authorised representative, his guardian in case he is a minor or “a member of the public in respect of a public figure or a holder of public office”. Online public defamation has also been made a cognisable and a non-bailable offence.
Cases falling under PECA will be supervised by a high court and the trial court will have to conclude the case within six months.
PTI govt proposes defamation on social media as punishable offense
“The court shall submit a monthly progress report of any pending trial to the concerned high court and shall give reasons for the inability of the court to expeditiously conclude the trial,” says the ordinance.
Apart from sending the report to the high courts, copies of the progress report will be sent to the law secretary if the case is registered in the Islamabad Capital Territory. However, if a case is registered in a province, then the copies of the report will be submitted to the “provincial secretaries of prosecution departments, the prosecutor general or advocate general”.
