Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016: Against cybercrime or freedom of speech?

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan on its drive against ‘cyber criminals’, especially those on social media, has sought action against 64,000 Facebook and Twitter accounts on receiving complaints from state institutions and the general public.

According to a FIA official there are three major areas where the FIA has found social media being widely misused which are blasphemy, anti-state activities and terrorism.”

Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar had also suggested that the government could ban social media networks if they failed to censor content attempting to desecrate Islam.

Since mid-May, the cyber wing of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has arrested dozens of people under the newly enacted Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 for criticising the government on social media. The crackdown was ordered by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan after the military received a barrage of criticism regarding its handling of the investigation into the “Dawn Leaks” case. The case refers to a report published by the Dawn newspaper in October that exposed the power struggle between the political government and the military high command over the actions of militant groups that the government claimed had led to Pakistan’s growing international isolation.

Since Partition, freedom of speech in Pakistan has been regularly curtailed. The authoritarian regimes of both Ayub Khan (1958-1969) and Zia ul-Haq (1978-1988) heavily censored media outlets and used violence to shape public discourse. After the 1958 military coup that established Khan’s presidency, he banned Opposition political parties and perpetuated four years of martial law. Pakistan’s infamous blasphemy laws – which carry a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam – were enacted by Zia ul-Haq’s government and are still being abused to this day.

During Pervez Musharraf’s presidency (2001-2008), the aptly named Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority was created to tame the media and effectively bring it under state control. The Cyber Crimes Law is the latest addition in a long line of policy decisions that suppress citizens’ right to free expression.

Over the past 30 years, countless Pakistani journalists have been intimidated, abducted, and killed while the courts fail to deliver justice and no government officials are held to account. The Cyber Crimes Law creates new formal legal channels for the government to censor free speech.