The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by Captain Safdar (retd) - who has no known expertise in IT affairs - approved the draft of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2015, on Thursday, generating a lot of criticism. According to the Internet Service Providers Association as well as Pakistan Software Houses Association representatives, the bill in its present form betrays lack of comprehension of technicalities, finer points of information technology and relevant international law. The purpose of the draft bill is to counter terrorism and extremism as part of the National Action Plan, but it contains several controversial, even ridiculous, provisions that are aimed at curtailing freedom of expression by handing excessive power to the law enforcement agencies to block websites and make arrests without warrants.
Section 21 of the draft bill, for instance, criminalizes taking "a picture of any person and display[ing] it or distributing it without his consent or knowledge in a manner that harms a person." Only the Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman or Captain Safdar can explain what this particular provision has got to do with NAP. What is obvious is that it is intended to deny social media users the democratic right to satirize public personalities. Also, sending an email or message without a recipient's permission is to become an offence even though spam is not a criminal offense anywhere in the world. Another provision of the same section seeks to criminalize communication that is obscene, vulgar, contemptuous or indecent, immoral, etc, without defining these attributes that hold different meanings for different people. The draft bill also gives the government the authority to block any website in the interest of "the glory of Islam, or the integrity security of defence of Pakistan, or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign states..." Defining glory of Islam, again is a relative matter. The reference to 'friendly states' suggests all those questioning the government policy toward the Gulf states' demand for military support need to be silenced. The draft law gives the government arbitrary powers to block any website or punish any user of a social media platform. It is obvious that whosoever drafted the bill is aware of neither democratic imperatives nor knowledge of international laws concerning cybercrime.
In a glaring contradiction, the draft also says "nothing [contained herein] shall apply to anything aired by the broadcast media or distribution service licensed under Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002." As it is, the traditional broadcast and the print media have the same rights vis-à-vis freedom of expression as any citizen of the state. The same applies to the social media. Apparently, most of the PML-N members of the committee - 14 out of the 20 members - went along with the deeply flawed draft bill because they did not want to offend the influential chairman of the NA standing committee. Five of the six opposition members absented themselves from the final meeting having complained earlier that they were not provided copies of the bill for a proper review. There is reason for optimism that when the draft is presented before the full house for discussion the illogical provisions will be thrown out.
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