LHC issues notices on plea challenging Peca amendments – Pakistan

The Superior Court of Lahore issued notices on a request that defies the prevention of the Electronic Crime Law (amendment) 2025 that recently rectified in law.

The new provisions introduce harder sanctions, so the Government considers “false news”, the expansion of the state supervision of digital platforms and the creation of new regulatory bodies to monitor social networks.

President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday gave his consent to the Peque amendments despite the general reaction of political parties, journalist organizations and human rights organizations.

The request against the bill, a copy of which it is available with Dawn.comIt was presented on Wednesday against LHC by journalist Jaffar Ahmad Yar through lawyer Nadeem Sarwar. He said the bill was hurriedly approved without considering the opinions of the relevant stakeholders.

Upon hearing today’s request, Judge Farooq Haider rejected the request of the requests to immediately suspend the implementation of several provisions of the Peca amendment.

He said that a decision on the declaration will be made once the parties have submitted their position.

Judge Haider also asked all the parties to respond within three weeks and issued notices.

The petition appointed the Pakistan Federation through the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of IT and the Telecommunications Authority of Pakistan (PTA) as respondents.

He provided several arguments to affirm that sections 2R (H), 2R (2) and 2 (V) that were inserted into the PCA laws were against the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. In addition, he affirmed that section 26a, which provides the punishment for disseminating “false and false information”, failed the “proof of principle of proportionality.”

The petitioner, therefore, urged the court to declare that these provisions are “unconstitutional to be inconsistent with articles 2-A, 9, 19, 19-A and 175 of the Constitution.”

He also requested that until the final provision of the main request, the trial and procedures are linked to the result of the declaration.

Critics see legislation as a tool to suppress dissent and silence critical voices, while the government insists that it is necessary to combat misinformation.

Amnesty International warned last week that the recently proposed changes to the country’s cyber crime laws could “further adjust government control over the strongly controlled digital panorama of Pakistan” if promulgated in the law.

“The vague and ambiguous framework of some elements of the offense along with a story that the sin is used to silence the dissent raises concerns that this new crime will cool to the little that remains of the right to expression online in the country “, according to the statement. .

Journalists have assaulted legislation as an “attack on freedom of expression”, while the PTI accused the PPP, an ally of the ruling coalition, of hypocrisy, hitting their support for the bill.

The Federal Union of Journalists of Pakistan (PFUJ) announced Thursday that it would observe a “black day” today with a series of national demonstrations in protest for the legislation.



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