ISLAMABAD: A report released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has underscored serious flaws in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) (Amendment) Act 2025 and called for the law to be repealed entirely without accepting any coercive application of the law’s previous iterations from 2016 and 2023.
Produced under HRCP’s Legislation Watch Cell, the report’s findings were presented by digital rights activist Farieha Aziz at an advocacy meeting held in Islamabad on Thursday as part of a EU Pakistan-funded project.
Earlier this year, contentious amendments made by the government in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016.
The law provisions new definitions, the establishment of regulatory and investigative bodies, and stricter penalties for disseminating “false” information.
Director HRCP Farah Ziaa said that the HRCP had noted with alarm the recent spate of repressive laws, particularly those impinging on civic spaces and being used to suppress dissent and freedom of expression.
Aziz, who has authored the report, pointed out that the law criminalises vague categories of “fake and false information” with penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment.
It also establishes a powerful regulatory authority, a complaints council, and a tribunal — all of which are subject to disproportionate executive control, she said.
Further concerns mentioned in the HRCP report include the conversion of previously bailable and non-cognisable offences into non-bailable and cognisable ones, widening the scope for coercive action.
Additionally, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has replaced the Federal Investigation Authority, operating without adequate safeguards, it said.
Journalists present in the HRCP meeting stated that it was state’s responsibility to protect individuals’ rights. They urged for formation of a united front to uphold the freedom of speech and information, while demanding decriminalisation of free speech.
Former Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) legislator Sana Ullah Baloch identified freedom of expression as integral to a strong parliament.
HRCP Co-chair MunizaeJahangir drew attention to hyper-regulated connectivity in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan as well as the pressure under which journalists in these regions, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, operate.
Digital rights activists UsamaKhilji and Aftab Alam advocated the formation of a national coalition comprising civil society members, journalists and human rights defenders to engage with political parties on the rapid escalation in curbs on freedom of expression and opinion.
Supporting this proposal, HRCP council member and former senator Farhatullah Babar also underscored the need to counter disinformation while protecting the broader right to free speech and information.
Concluding the meeting, HRCP Islamabad Vice-Chair Nasreen Azhar proposed that such a coalition should also identify all such laws in conflict with constitutional guarantees of fundamental freedoms.