Voicing concerns: Activists point out implications of electronic crimes bill

Speakers discuss censorship at a talk held at Habib University.

KARACHI: Imagine if your Facebook post mocking politicians suddenly disappears, or a picture you uploaded magically removes itself. Or, even better, imagine the police turn up on your doorstep with a warrant to arrest you for using your sister’s laptop without her permission. Under the new Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015 (PECB), this - and more - is possible.

In a talk held at Habib University on Thursday, Pakistan Software Houses Association president Jehan Ara, Bolo Bhi internet freedom activist Sana Saleem and writer and researcher Nazish Brohi discussed the implications of the bill with students.



The dialogue kicked off with a video of Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, in which the former president told a reporter to shut up. The video was blocked and removed from YouTube and Vimeo an hour after it was uploaded. “This is how ridiculous censorship is,” remarked Ara. “They are trying to control what we view and what we talk about: Skype, phone conversations, WhatsApp - anything you can think of.”

Brohi agreed, saying that this censorship will deepen state control. “This bill is a continuation of many things,” she pointed out, giving the example of Balochistan. “Every newspaper that came out of Balochistan has been shut down. And all the bookshops in Panjgur have been closed.”

Meanwhile, Saleem criticised the ambiguity of the bill. “A well-intended bill is a well-drafted bill and this is not a well-drafted bill,” she said, highlighting Sections 3, 4 and 34 in particular.

“Nobody is saying you can’t make a bill; just don’t make a loosely-worded bill,” added Jehan Ara. She claimed that certain clauses had been taken from the Indian IT Act of 2000 and the Granada parliament bill, which the Granada assembly threw out, terming it ‘rubbish’. “If the bill goes back to the committee, there will be a public hearing - that is what we are pushing for,” explained Saleem. “We only demand two things: transparency and input from stakeholders,” Jehan Ara chimed in.

As the talk drew to an end, a student raised his hand to ask a question of the university authorities. “My comment was deleted from the university’s Facebook page while I was blocked from making further comments. Now we are having this talk about internet freedom. Isn’t this hypocrisy?”

His question went unanswered.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2015.