Citizens’ JAC criticises legislation on cyber terrorism

Islamabad
The citizens’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) on Friday criticised the approval of legislation on cyber terrorism from National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology terming the new legislation a threat to constitutional rights to freedom of expression, speech, access, writing and visualisation.
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee approved the legislation on Thursday and has referred it to Parliament for final approval.
In a statement issued in response to the approval of legislation, the JAC has raised serious objection to the Standing Committee’s proceedings saying that the IT industry and experts have been purposely excluded from the final process. “It is untrue to state that the multiple reiterations and revisions of the bill were done in a transparent, participatory and consultative manner,” mentions the statement.
The statement rejected the claims of State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman that once the legislation would be approved, Pakistan would succeed to convince Google to launch YouTube.com.pk. “This law will not make a bit of difference to the ban on YouTube or its localisation (i.e. YouTube.com.pk), so the minister should not mislead the public. Google was very clear in its letter to the Lahore High Court, that localisation was not dependent on just intermediary liability protection, which is being extended through this bill.”
The statement raises questions on low attendance in the meeting as majority of members failed to turn up at the meeting. “Was adequate notice not given to the non PML-N members of the Standing Committee, especially those from out of town to enable them to be present at such a critical meeting on the Bill? And why was the bill approved in such a hurry?” the statement says.
JAC also rejected the claim that the legislation has potential of only one percent and calls on the PML-N government to provide cast iron guarantees on legal stamp paper that there will be only 1 per cent misuse. “We would like to ask as to who monitors the extent and quality of such authorised misuse.” The statement further mentions that the Minister said that this bill “gives protection to ISPs whereas on the contrary, provisions pertaining to the telecom operators such as Section 15, makes them liable for criminal penalties.”
“We firmly believe that all our constitutional rights to freedom of expression, speech, access, writing and visualisation are definitely under threat of becoming criminal acts, In particular, sections 21, 22, 34,” mentions the statement. Responding to IT Minister’s statement that the “broadcast media (TV and newspapers) are not in the purview of this law and this is particular to cyber space”, the statement says that media houses have online platforms which will be adversely impacted by this law.
“This exposes an ignorance of the current status of the “broadcast” media, which are more in cyber space than in print or on television/radio channels. Moreover, why should only the broadcast media be exempted from this law?” the statement questions.
For Minister’s statement that IT industry should “trust institutions that they will not misuse this new legislation against them,” the JAC’s response is that 68 years of mal-governance and institutional wrongdoing is not a great precedent for fostering trust.