Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Faisal Sabzwari on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to drop the idea of amending the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), suggesting him to take stakeholders onboard to curb fake news.
“We reject amendments in PECA, already a regressive law has become more dangerous now,” Sabzwari wrote on his official Twitter handle. He said that arresting someone without warrants would mean guilty before proven. “We have faced it and don’t want others to face that. We demand Prime Minister Imran Khan to drop this idea, take stakeholders onboard to curb Fake News,” he added. Earlier in the day, Federal Minister for Information Technology Aminul Haque, who also belongs to MQM-P – an ally of PTI-led federal government, also expressed concern over the recent amendments to the act, and in a letter to the premier, said the change has drawn widespread “condemnation and ire of media bodies and the journalistic community”.
The IT minister stated that the media bodies’ view was that the amendments were drafted without “constructive consultation with the relevant stakeholders”. “By pushing forward with these amendments without consulting the relevant stakeholders, in this case media practitioners, the government will stoke anger and resentment within the journalistic community,” Haque added. He further urged PM Imran to launch a consultative process with the civil society and media community “at the earliest”. He stated that it was only through dialogue and deliberation that media practitioners and the government could establish procedures to curtail fake news.
