ISLAMABAD: A new law in Pakistan aimed at regulating social media will “further tighten” the government’s grip on the “heavily controlled digital landscape” in the South Asian country, global human rights watchdog Amnesty International said on Friday.
Pakistan’s National Assembly, lower house of parliament, introduced and passed the amendments to the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) on Thursday. The amendments were presented in the Senate, the upper house, on Friday and were forwarded to a relevant committee for consideration. After their passage from both houses, the draft will be sent to the president to be signed into a law.
The new regulations will set up a social media regulatory authority that will have its own investigation agency and tribunals, according to a draft on the parliament’s website. Such tribunals will be able to try and punish offenders with prison sentences of up to three years and fines of two million rupees ($7,200) for dissemination of “false or fake” information.
Pakistan’s Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told parliament on Thursday the law was introduced to block “false and fake” news on social media, which he said had no specific regulations to govern it.
“The amendment introduces a criminal offense against those perpetrating so-called ‘false and fake information’ and imposes a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment with a fine. The vague and ambiguous framing of some elements of the offense together with a history of the PECA being used to silence dissent raises concerns that this new offense will chill what little is left of the right to online expression in the country,” Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s deputy director of campaigns for South Asia, said in a statement. 
“Presented in the absence of any consultation or debate, the amendment also expands the powers previously available to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority through the newly created Social Media Regulation and Protection Authority. These provisions grant authorities power to block and remove content based on vague criteria, which will violate the right to freedom of expression and fail to meet standards of proportionality and necessity under international human rights law.”
Pant said the developments were in step with Pakistan’s deployment of “intrusive” digital surveillance technologies and laws that “fail to incorporate any human rights safeguards,” calling on authorities to immediately withdraw the amendments and instead engage in a consultative process with civil society to amend PECA to bring it in line with international human rights law.
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, passed in 2016, triggered widespread criticism from human rights organizations and activists for its potential for “harmful impact” on the right to freedom of expression and access to information in Pakistan.
Reporters Without Borders, an organization that promotes and defends press freedom, ranked Pakistan low on its 2024 World Press Freedom Index, at number 152. The group also says Pakistan is one of the most dangerous places for journalists to work.
Separately on Friday, Pakistan’s Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Afzal Butt said the government had not consulted any journalistic bodies before introducing the PECA amendments, adding he believed they were intended to gag freedom of speech and intimidate journalists and media outlets.
“We reject this unilateral decision by the government to set up any such tribunals,” Butt told Reuters. “We also are in favor of regulations, but, you know, a law enforcement agency or a police officer can’t decide what is false or fake news.”
The PFUJ said in a statement it would launch countrywide rallies against the new law next week and that if the law was not withdrawn, it would stage a sit-in protest outside parliament.