President Zardari assents to Peca amendment law despite journalists’ calls to desist

President Asif Ali Zardari assented to the much-debated changes to the country’s cybercrime laws on Wednesday despite calls by journalists and media bodies to not sign off on the law.

The development comes a day after the Senate passed amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016, triggering protests across the country by media workers.

Journalists have assailed the legislation as an “attack on freedom of expression”, while the opposition PTI has also vociferously protested the legislation’s rushed passage in the parliament. The PPP, accused by the opposition of hypocrisy for supporting the bill, has hinted at further tweaks to address journalists’ concerns.

The new amendments add Section 26(A) to Peca, which seeks to penalise perpetrators of “fake news” online. It says anyone who intentionally spreads, displays, or transmits false information likely to cause fear, panic, or unrest in society may face up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to Rs2 million, or both.

Concerns have also been raised by Amnesty International, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and digital rights activists.

A press release from the presidency issued today said Zardari signed off on the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Bill, 2025, as well as the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill and National Commission on the Status of Women (Amendment) Bill.

The development comes after the Parliamentary Reporters’ Association (PRA) claimed earlier today that President Zardari had accepted the group’s request, which was conveyed by senior politician Maulana Fazlur Rehman, to not sign the law.

“The president, at the request of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has halted the bill for some time till PRA Pakistan sends its suggestions,” the statement said.

As per the Constitution, the president can return the bill once to the parliament but when sent to him again, assent will be deemed as granted even if he does not sign it within ten days.

According to the statement, a delegation of the PRA met with Fazl, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), following which the seasoned politician contacted the president.

The PRA said Fazl expressed his complete solidarity with the association on their reservations against the Peca bill’s “approval without consultations”. The JUI-F supremo relayed the concerns voiced by the PRA delegation and its president Usman Khan, the press release added.

Fazl strongly urged President Zardari not to immediately sign the Peca amendment bill, highlighting that “journalists across the country have objected to certain sections of it” and calling for those concerns to be alleviated.

The PRA statement further said the president had assured the JUI-F leader of “full cooperation”. It claimed that Zardari also promised the association that consultations would be held between the PRA and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

Law’s signing criticised by journalists, activists, JUI-F

JUI-F Senator Kamran Murtaza told Dawn.com following the president’s assent that Zardari had assured the party that he would not sign the bill immediately. “Asif Zardari should have kept the commitment he made with us,” Murtaza added.

He claimed that the president had said that the matter would be discussed in a meeting with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) President Afzal Butt said in an interview on Geo News it was “very unfortunate” that the president had refused to listen to persistent calls by journalist bodies who were pointing out issues in the Peca amendments.

“The PPP has greatly disappointed us but this is not a new thing for us. We will have a meeting an hour from now … we will resort to legal recourse as well as move on to the next stage of the press freedom movement, that began yesterday, that will be a black day across the country against the president’s move,” he continued.

Butt said reporters, press unions and press clubs would wave blag flags and ribbons and a nationwide appeal would be made by the Joint Action Committee to media workers to observe a black day whose date would be announced shortly.

“We will be approaching the courts as there are many points in this law where the courts can provide us with relief,” he concluded.

Digital rights activist Farieha Aziz told Dawn.com that the development “puts to rest any ‘hope’ some journalists were holding out and fig leaf PPP was presenting.

“PPP supported this law through and through and the facade of ‘we will consult and support amendments and the government is the one who did not see this process through’ is gone.”

In an interaction with journalists in the Parliament House media lounge a day ago, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman had reiterated her party’s support for media freedom and freedom of expression.

“In the next session, we must introduce new amendments to safeguard citizens’ rights and media freedom, regardless of whether the bill is passed,” she had said. It may be noted that the PPP voted in favour of the controversial amendments.

Meanwhile, Digital rights activist and human rights lawyer Nighat Dad told Dawn.com that it was a “very disappointing” development and criticised the “haphazard” manner the bill was made law without consultation with stakeholders and ignoring Tuesday’s protests.

“It’s just a very disappointing and discouraging development and I must say there are uncertain times ahead for social media users on social media platforms while exercising their freedom of opinion and speech.”

Usama Khilji, director of digital rights foundation Bolo Bhi, said the way the amendments were “bulldozed” showed that “parliamentarians have very little power over the lawmaking process”.

He said normal consultative procedures with other stakeholders were not followed when new laws were proposed. “This shows democracy is on the decline and the legislative process is not inclusive at all,” he added.

Khilji said “extreme restrictions” were being witnessed on the right to freedom of speech that would have a major impact on press freedom. He lambasted the PPP and PML-N for “this rollback of democracy and human rights that we are seeing”.

The activist pointed out that the government should also prepare for international repercussions from organisations due to its “anti-human rights policies and legislation” it was implementing.

Changes to Peca

According to a report issued by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, the law “primarily seeks to modernise … the legislative framework for combating cybercrimes in Pakistan”, while the interior secretary emphasised that the bill was written in good faith and aimed to “protect the general public … and to make the in-field act more effective to protect people’s rights”.

In Section 26A of the amended law, the term has been explained as any information disseminated by a person that “he knows or has reason to believe to be false or fake and likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic or disorder or unrest in general public or society”.

The law also contains dissolving the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cybercrime Wing and setting up a new National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to investigate illegal activities on social med­ia.

It further entails the the establishment of the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority (SMPRA), which would perform a range of functions related to social media such as education, awareness, training, regulation, enlistment, blocking and more.

The SMPRA chairman will have the power to order the immediate blocking of any unlawful content on social media, while the authority will have the power to block content that contradicts the ideology of Pakistan or incites citizens to break the law.

It will also be authorised to block unlawful content targeting members of the judiciary, armed forces, parliament or provincial assemblies. Content deleted during parliamentary proceedings cannot be reuploaded on social media.

The law also contains the establishment of a Social Media Complaint Council. In cases where social media platforms fail to comply with directives, the authority will have the power to approach the tribunal for enforcement.

The federal government will also establish a Social Media Protection Tribunal to enforce the provisions of the amended act.