The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices on a petition challenging the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Bill 2025 which was recently rectified into law.
The new provisions introduce harsher penalties for what the government considers “fake news”, the expansion of state oversight of digital platforms, and the creation of new regulatory bodies to monitor social media.
President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday gave his assent to the Peca amendments despite widespread backlash from political parties, journalist bodies, and human rights organisations.
The petition against the bill, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was filed on Wednesday before the LHC by journalist Jaffar Ahmad Yar through Advocate Nadeem Sarwar. It said that the bill was hastily passed without considering the opinions of relevant stakeholders.
Hearing the petition today, Justice Farooq Haider rejected the petitioners’ request to immediately suspend the implementation of various provisions of the Peca amendment.
He said that a decision on the plea will be made once the parties have presented their stance.
Justice Haider also asked all the parties to respond within three weeks and issued notices to them.
The petition named the Federation of Pakistan through the law ministry, the IT ministry and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as respondents.
It provided various arguments for contending that sections 2R(h), 2R(2) and 2(V) which were inserted into the Peca laws were against the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. It further asserted that section 26A, which provides the punishment for spreading “false and fake information”, failed the “test of principle of proportionality”.
The petitioner, therefore, urged the court to declare those provisions to be “unconstitutional being inconsistent with Articles 2-A, 9, 19, 19-A and 175 of the Constitution”.
It also requested that till the final disposal of the main petition, the trial and proceedings be linked with the plea’s outcome.
Critics view the legislation as a tool for suppressing dissent and silencing critical voices, while the government insists it is necessary to combat disinformation.
Amnesty International warned last week that the recently proposed changes to the country’s cybercrime laws could “further tighten the government’s grip over Pakistan’s heavily controlled digital landscape” if enacted into law.
“The vague and ambiguous framing of some elements of the offence together with a history of the Peca being used to silence dissent raises concerns that this new offence will chill what little is left of the right to online expression in the country,” the statement said.
Journalists have assailed the legislation as an “attack on freedom of expression”, while the PTI has accused the PPP, an ally of the ruling coalition, of hypocrisy, slamming its support for the bill.
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) announced on Thursday that it would observe a “Black Day” today with a series of nationwide demonstrations in protest of the legislation.
