The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday stated that the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) Ordinance 2022 was “draconian in nature”, saying it was an attempt to silence anti-government voices.
As part of a hearing of pleas against the new ordinance, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said the PECA law was only utilized against critics of the government.
He said that there were 14,000 complaints pending with the Federal Investigation Agency but it was only targeting the government’s rivals. Justice Minallah questioned why the court should not declare the Section 20 of the PECA ordinance as null and void.
During the hearing of the pleas against PECA, the IHC chief justice has also blamed the political parties and their workers for running malicious social media campaigns. Justice Minallah said the political parties workers trolled and accused opponents on social media. He added that state institutions were not granted fundamental rights, saying that they should not be afraid of being criticized.
The court also told the opposition parties to play their role in the parliament against PECA, saying they had majority in the Senate and thus had the power to stop the ordinance.
The ordinance was challenged by the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz along with media organizations.
