KARACHI: A leading digital rights organization has called for the establishment of an independent oversight body comprising civil society activists and government functionaries to monitor Internet censorship decisions, highlighting concerns over the impact of Pakistan’s cyber laws on press freedom.
In a report analyzing the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and related legislation, the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) warned this week the law had been used to target journalists and suppress dissenting voices across the country.
Enacted in 2016, PECA was introduced to combat cybercrime but has been widely criticized by activists who see it as a tool for curbing free speech and stifling political opposition. Over the years, several journalists have faced legal action under the law, with cases registered against them in different parts of the country.
The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), a non-profit established in 2013 to promote free speech, noted in its report that PECA was passed after more than a year of closed-door consultations between the government and lawmakers, despite objections raised by civil society and international human rights organizations.
The lack of transparency in the legislative process, it said, had created an uncertain digital environment, allowing law enforcement agencies to target individuals who question state policies and actions.
“Journalists remain particularly precarious in this increasingly restrictive online environment given their outsized visibility and centrality to freedom of expression,” the report said, adding media workers were “under attack from the state’s lawfare.”
The DRF stressed the need for revising existing laws, including the wholesale repeal of certain sections and enacting reforms to prevent law enforcement agencies from misusing legislation against journalists and dissenting voices in digital spaces.
It recommended the formation of “an independent oversight body, comprising a majority of civil society experts and a minority of government officials, to review and monitor Internet censorship and throttling decisions, ensuring transparency, accountability and adherence to international human rights standards.”
One of the most significant consequences of aggressive digital regulation, the report noted, had been the “chilling effect” phenomenon, where self-censorship becomes a preemptive protective mechanism in response to state surveillance and regulatory crackdowns.
The DRF further emphasized the importance of ensuring that future legislation on digital governance and technological regulation is developed through inclusive consultations with all stakeholders, including civil society organizations, journalists, media professionals and the technical community.
Pakistan’s digital rights group calls for independent body to monitor Internet censorship decision
https://arab.news/58tmz
Pakistan’s digital rights group calls for independent body to monitor Internet censorship decision
- Digital Rights Foundation says PECA, other cyber laws have been used to target journalists in the country
- It calls for a thorough revision to the existing cyber laws, including the wholesale repeal of certain sections
Pakistani politicians urge dialogue with Imran Khan’s party as PM offers talks
- National Dialogue Committee group organizes summit attended by prominent lawyers, politicians and journalists in Islamabad
- Participants urge government to lift alleged ban on political activities and media restrictions, form committee for negotiations
ISLAMABAD: Participants of a meeting featuring prominent politicians, lawyers and civil society members on Wednesday urged the government to initiate talks with former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, lift alleged bans on political activities after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently invited the PTI for talks.
The summit was organized by the National Dialogue Committee (NDC), a political group formed last month by former PTI members Chaudhry Fawad Husain, ex-Sindh governor Imran Ismail and Mehmood Moulvi. The NDC has called for efforts to ease political tensions in the country and facilitate dialogue between the government and Khan’s party.
The development takes place amid rising tensions between the PTI and Pakistan’s military and government. Khan, who remains in jail on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, blames the military and the government for colluding to keep him away from power by rigging the 2024 general election and implicating him in false cases. Both deny his allegations.
Since Khan was ousted in a parliamentary vote in April 2022, the PTI has complained of a widespread state crackdown, while Khan and his senior party colleagues have been embroiled in dozens of legal cases. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month invited the PTI for talks during a meeting of the federal cabinet, saying harmony among political forces was essential for the country’s progress.
“The prime objective of the dialogue is that we want to bring the political temperatures down,” Ismail told Arab News after the conference concluded.
“At the moment, the heat is so much that people— especially in politics— they do not want to sit across the table and discuss the pertaining issues of Pakistan which is blocking the way for investment.”
Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who heads the Awaam Pakistan political party, attended the summit along with Jamaat-e-Islami senior leader Liaquat Baloch, Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan’s Waseem Akhtar and Haroon Ur Rashid, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. Journalists Asma Shirazi and Fahd Husain also attended the meeting.
Members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI did not attend the gathering.
The NDC urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to initiate talks with the opposition. It said after the government forms its team, the NDC will announce the names of the opposition negotiating team after holding consultations with its jailed members.
“Let us create some environment. Let us bring some temperatures down and then we will do it,” Ismail said regarding a potential meeting with the jailed Khan.
Muhammad Ali Saif, a former adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, told participants of the meeting that Pakistan was currently in a “dysfunctional state” due to extreme political polarization.
“The tension between the PTI and the institutions, particularly the army, at the moment is the most fundamental, the most prominent and the most crucial issue,” Saif noted.
‘CHANGED FACES’
The summit proposed six specific confidence-building measures. These included lifting an alleged ban on political activities and the appointment of the leaders of opposition in Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly.
The joint communique called for the immediate release of women political prisoners, such as Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and PTI leader Yasmin Rashid, and the withdrawal of cases against supporters of political parties.
The communiqué also called for an end to media censorship and proposed that the government and opposition should “neither use the Pakistan Armed Forces for their politics nor engage in negative propaganda against them.”
Amir Khan, an overseas Pakistani businessperson, complained that frequent political changes in the country had undermined investors’ confidence.
“I came here with investment ideas, I came to know that faces have changed after a year,” Amir Khan said, referring to the frequent change in government personnel.
Khan’s party, on the other hand, has been calling for a “meaningful” political dialogue with the government.
However, it has accused the government of denying PTI members meetings with Khan in the Rawalpindi prison where he remains incarcerated.
“For dialogue to be meaningful, it is essential that these authorized representatives are allowed regular and unhindered access to Imran Khan so that any engagement accurately reflects his views and PTI’s collective position,” PTI leader Azhar Leghari told Arab News last week.
