MPs, experts see lacunas in ‘electronic crime bill’

Islamabad
Legal experts and parliamentarians have pointed out lacunas and loopholes in “The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015”, terming its several sections a violation of basic human rights and predicted that the bill would be challenged in the Supreme Court if the lacunas are not removed before it is passed.
However, the Parliamentarians from ruling party justified the bill, saying that it is the need of the hour in order to implement the National Action Plan to counter terrorism in letter and spirit. On the other hand, the legal experts says the government should justify and relate the nexus between the National Action Plan and the blanket provisions proposed in the said bill; otherwise, the bill would be challenged in the apex court.
The bill is being widely criticized on the social media and is trending on top of the social networking website twitter.
According to the legal experts, there is a need of properly trained judiciary which has knowledge of cyber related issues as a session’s judge could not adjudicate on the cyber crimes cases. The government has drafted the bill in haste as there are many lacunas which should have been addressed properly before it was introduced in the assembly.
Talking to The News, Justice (R) Wajihuddin Ahmed said he has not gone through the bill clause by clause; however, after knowing its some of the points through media, he can easily say that some of the sections in bills are against the basic human rights and freedom of expression.
“I believe few sections of the bill would be challenged as they are in violation of the basic human rights, and if the government failed to relate the nexus between National Action Plan and some of the Blanket provisions in the proposed bill, then this bill would be challenged in the apex court,” commented Justice Wajih.
He said how a person could be tried if he has sent a text message to someone who disliked it. This is the violation of basic human right unless he is properly warned, but without any prior warning if the person is challenged in the court of law then this needs to be reviewed.
He said the government could not allow the police of any other investigating agencies to arrest anybody without warrant. There should be a reviewing body, and the investigating agencies should be made bound to take prior approval of the magistrate before making any arrest.
Commenting on sections 17 and 18 of the bill, which are about the political criticism, political expression in the form of analysis, commentary, blogs, cartoons, caricatures and memes, he said this is not a banana republic where nobody is allowed to criticise anybody. He said criticism for the purpose of reforms is the beauty of any society, and how could the government curb this basic human rights.
Renowned lawyer Ikram Chaudhry, while talking on the issue, said although majority of western countries have started penalising people who sent unnecessary and abusive text messages of such things and this is not a bad idea. However, the government needs to determine its modalities very carefully.
Commenting on the political criticism or cartoons and other such things, Mr Chaudhry said every citizen of any country has the basic right of “fair comments” for the sake of bringing reforms to the society. If the government restricts this basic human right, then the bill would not sustain as anybody would challenge it in the Supreme Court as no law could be made against the basic human rights.
Advocate Chaudhry Mehmood Bashir Virk, Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice, while defending the bill, said this is the need of the hour as government needs to control the menace of terrorism and implement the National Action Plan. He said this has become a trend that people often send unnecessary and derogatory messages to others, and they have the right to challenge it in the court of law.
Everybody is entitled of basic human rights and those who are receiving such messages have the equal rights. This trend of maligning people through such campaigns should be stopped and this is only possible through such kind of laws. However he admitted that certain sections of the bill needed to be reviewed and the government would definitely not take any step which is against the public sentiments.
It is pertinent to mention here that there are several points in the bill which have been criticised widely by the people which include; 1-It will be a crime to send text messages or photos to anyone’s email address or phone without the recipient’s consent.
Similarly, another point which says that the police or FIA or any other agency won’t need a warrant to search, seize or make arrests. Another important section which came under criticism of the masses is sections 17 and 18 of the bill, the political criticism and political expression in the form of analysis, commentary, blogs, cartoons, caricatures and memes has been criminalised.