For the sake of free speech
The Islamabad High Court has struck down the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022, terming it unconstitutional. The honourable declared that criminalisation of defamation, protection of individual reputations through arrest and imprisonment and the resultant effect violates the letter of the Constitution and the invalidity thereof is beyond reasonable doubt. It rightly stated that fundamental rights are paramount and no legislation in contravention to it could either be legislated or implemented. This intervention on the part of the judiciary comes as a shot in the arm for a wider constituency in the civil society that had nursed serious reservations on the impugned piece of legislation that had scuttled expression of speech, as the scanner of libel loomed large over their heads.
A glance into the origin of law is worth-pondering. The PML-N government enacted the law in 2016, to be amended in 2022 through an ordinance. The law rested sweeping powers in the executive to act on any premise of defamation on social media, and punish the culprits, accordingly. The PTI went a step further and inserted Section 20 of the Act, which upped the retribution ante. The intention was to curb the proliferation of a robust media, especially its social handle, and bring it under watch. The excuse furthered was that it’s an era of hybrid 5G warfare.
The controversial amendment stirred a debate as it went on to silence the critics, especially political opponents, through use of force and coercion. Anyone who intentionally and publicly exhibits and disseminates news on a person, or an organisation, was liable under the law with imprisonment and fine. But paraphrasing and categorising them was with dubious intent. This opened a Pandora’s Box. It allegedly led to abuse of powers by sleuths, and the judicial review rightly found it fit to be scrapped.
We are living in an era of information misuse and abuse. Such overt and covert tactics, even on the part of the state, are at times meant to further autocracy. Freedom of speech and expression are in need of being protected against such gimmicks of law. Time to build a consensus on the propriety of free expression.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2022.
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