KARACHI: A journalists’ club in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has filed a case against a critic over alleged defamation under the controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), which Pakistani journalist bodies have challenged in courts.
The Mardan Press Club (MPC) alleged that Zahid Khan, who manages a Facebook page under his name and claims to be associated with ‘Daily Nida-e-Watan’ and ‘Piyam-e-Khyber’ newspapers, had been running a “defamatory and negative propaganda campaign” against the club and its members for several years. The First Information Report (FIR), registered against Khan under sections 506 and 500 of the Pakistan Penal Code as well as the PECA law, says the accused had been using “highly inappropriate language repeatedly” against MPC members.
The Pakistan Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act, 2025, enacted on January 29, includes provisions making the dissemination of “fake or false” information a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison without clearly defining “fake or false” news. Journalists and digital rights experts say they were excluded from consultations on the bill, which prevented genuine public scrutiny of the new law, and have challenged it in courts.
The PECA amendments aim to create four new regulatory bodies to regulate online content and broaden the definition of online harm. The regulatory bodies will be authorized to block and remove content based on ambiguous criteria that do not meet the standards of proportionality and necessity required under international human rights law, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International rights groups have said.
“Zahid had applied for the club’s membership, but the governing body rejected his application, deeming him unqualified for the membership,” Muhammad Riaz Khan Mayar, the MPC president, told Arab News.
“Following this, he approached the civil court and then the high court, but both forums dismissed his petition. After that, he started launching personal attacks against the press club and its members on social media, using highly inappropriate language repeatedly.”
Mayar said his press club shared concerns of Pakistani journalist bodies about the PECA law.
“The press club cannot engage in fights but has the right to seek legal recourse against persistent defamation and personal attacks,” he argued, saying that PECA was used only because it is currently in effect.
While journalist leaders supported legal action against the accused for alleged defamation, they criticized the invoking of PECA by the complainants.
AH Khanzada, secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), said the FIR should have been registered against relevant sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, and not the PECA law.
“The journalists of the country firmly stand against the PECA law which we strongly believe has been enacted and later amendments were made to target freedom of speech and freedom of press,” Khanzada said.
“We will continue our struggle against the law, which we have no doubt is meant to suppress our voice. As we stand with Mardan Press Club against those attacking it, we believe that registering FIR under the PECA law is totally wrong.”
He urged the press club management to take back the complaint and register it, if at all necessary, under other laws.
Fazil Jamili, president of the Karachi Press Club, echoed the concerns.
“We, the journalists, strongly oppose the PECA law and no case, against anyone, should be registered under it,” Jamili told Arab News. “We also believe that the press club had every right to adopt legal course against a person who had been making personal attacks on its office bearers and members, but it should be registered under other defamation laws instead of PECA.”
Pakistan press club sues critic for defamation under controversial cybercrime law
https://arab.news/gx2qa
Pakistan press club sues critic for defamation under controversial cybercrime law
- President of the Mardan Press Club says the accused had attacked members with ‘highly inappropriate language’
- Journalist leaders say case should have been registered under other laws, not Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act
Pakistan reassures investors after Barrick announces review of Reko Diq project after attacks
- Mining giant announced it would reassess all aspects of project after coordinated Jan. 30-31 assaults killed 58 in Balochistan
- Copper-gold project’s development long overshadowed by decades-long separatist insurgency in remote province
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has assured foreign investors it has the “capacity and capability” to secure the multibillion-dollar Reko Diq copper-gold mine, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Monday after Canada’s Barrick Mining Corporation ordered a review of the project following deadly separatist attacks in the province last month.
The mining giant announced it would reassess all aspects of the project after coordinated Jan. 30-31 assaults by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) killed 36 civilians and 22 security personnel across multiple districts of the remote southwestern province. Pakistani authorities say 216 militants were killed in follow-up operations.
The Reko Diq mine, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, is a cornerstone of Pakistan’s efforts to attract foreign investment and expand mineral exports after a prolonged economic crisis. Islamabad hopes the mines will generate $70 billion in free cash flow and $90 billion in operating cash flow. The project, expected to begin production in 2028, is jointly owned by Barrick Gold and the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan.
The project’s development, however, has repeatedly been overshadowed by security concerns in Balochistan, a sparsely populated province bordering Iran and Afghanistan that has faced a decades-long insurgency in which separatist groups target security forces, infrastructure and projects linked to foreign investment. Militants accuse the state of exploiting local resources without benefiting residents, an allegation the government denies.
“Of course, the government of Balochistan is concerned [about security], it’s not that they aren’t,” Bugti told Arab News in an interview in Islamabad.
“Barrick Gold has a very large investment and we have other international partners in that [Reko Diq mining project]. We want to assure them through your platform as well and also when our meetings will take place that we have the capacity and capability to protect our foreign investors.
“The state is intact, the government is intact. There is a functional government, there is a functional state in Balochistan.”
Bugti said authorities were redesigning security arrangements for the project, including raising a dedicated protection force in mineral-bearing areas and strengthening border controls. However, he acknowledged that attacks affected investor confidence.
“Yes, [attacks] do make a dent, when your country or province takes off [economically],” he said. “It does impact the perception.”
However, Bugti refused to describe the coordinated January attacks as a “security failure.”
“A security failure is when the [army’s] corps headquarters is captured ... when someone seizes control of the biggest cantonment in Quetta, or for that matter, captures our IG [Inspector-General of Police] headquarters, or the IG FC [Frontier Corps] headquarters, you call it a security failure,” the chief minister said.
“I say it was a success of security forces that within hours, as I told you, other than Nushki, everything was clear.”
The minister accused Pakistan’s neighbor and archival India of supporting insurgent groups in Balochistan, an allegation New Delhi has repeatedly denied.
“What evidence do you need? Kulbhushan Jadhav was not here to sell chickpeas. It is on record that he was an intelligence officer who came to support Baloch insurgents, and the way he was arrested highlighted this,” he said.
Jadhav is an Indian national arrested by Pakistan in 2016 and convicted by a military court on espionage charges. India disputes the allegations and challenged the case at the International Court of Justice, which ordered Pakistan to review the conviction but did not rule on guilt or innocence.
Ultimately, Bugti said long-term stability in Balochistan depended on pursuing economic development alongside security operations.
“See there is a development paradigm and the security paradigm. Both should be carried forward together,” he said.
“My vision is that meritocracy and an anti-corruption drive are key to success in Balochistan.”
