Aminul Haq says 'disagreed' to PECA Amend in letter to PM

KARACHI: Federal Information Technology Minister Aminul Haq has said that the government didn’t take the stakeholders into confidence over the PICA amendments.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Aminul Haq said that his party MQM was not agreed with the recently introduced PECA amendments.

“The absence of interpretation of the fake news in the legislation and non-bailable arrest spreading an unrest,” the letter read.

The legislation could have become better if opinions would have been invited from the media organizations and experts, the IT minister said.

“Press is the fourth pillar of the state and every government enjoy its relations with media,” the letter read. “The journalists and the media organizations are getting against the government and have announced protest against the ordinance”.

“We are allies, but belong to an organization struggling for the rights of the people. We could not support these laws at any cost in the MQM politics,” the minister writes.

“This amendment ordinance is a threat to the people’s support to the government and also against the freedom of expression,” the letter read.

“Hopefully the government will make fresh amendments after consulting stakeholders,” the letter concludes.

Federal Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Farogh Naseem on Sunday announced that the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) has been amended to stop spreading fake news and hate speech content on electronic and social media platforms.