Sabir Hashmi faces action under PECA passed by PML-N govt

The social media activist of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Sabir Mehmood Hashmi has faced arrest under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) passed by the then PML-N government.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested Sabir Hashmi on Monday evening for running an indecent trend on social media against Prime Minister Imran Khan and First Lady Bushra Bibi.

Following his arrest, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz slammed the federal government for the illegal arrest of Sabir Hashmi. She questioned whether Imran Khan is a sacred cow whose robberies and failures could not be criticised.

صابر محمود ہاشمی کا دن دہاڑے اغوا حکومت کی بدحواسی کی گواہی دیتا ہے۔ کیا عمران خان کوئی مقدس گائے ہے کہ جسکی لوٹ مار اور ناکامیوں پر تنقید نہیں کی جاسکتی؟
پوری پارٹی اس وقت @SabirMehmood26 کے ساتھ کھڑی ہے۔ FIA کو بھی چاہیے کہ اس ختم ہوتی حکومت کا آلہِ کار بننے سے گریز کریں۔

— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) February 14, 2022

She also announced that the political party is standing with the Sabir Mehmood Hashmi. She demanded FIA not to be a tool of the outgoing federal government.

Two days ago, the FIA cybercrime wing had arrested Sabir Hashmi and his friend from a showroom who was accused of running an indecent trend against PM Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi. The FIA officials had also seized a mobile phone and other devices from Hashmi’s possession.

It may be noted here that PM’s aide Dr Shahbaz Gill had hinted at strict action against those responsible for running the smear campaign against Imran Khan’s family, whereas, Senator Faisal Javed Khan had also demanded action in the Upper House.

PECA

Pakistan drafted and passed its first cybercrime law in the form of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), on the 22nd of August, 2016. As progress since then has shown, the legislation is embedded with many flaws, according to Digital Rights Foundation (DRF).

Civil society groups have posited that the vague language, broad powers and disproportionate punishments prescribed in the Act are a cause for concern and should be amended. Law enforcement agencies, on the other hand, hold that PECA does not provide them with enough powers.

For instance they have argued that implementation of the Act is stymied by the compoundable, bailable and non-cognisable nature of all the offences listed under the Act with the exception of s.10 (cyber terrorism), s.21 (offences against the modesty of a natural person) and s. 22 (child pornography).

It is their contention that due to these limitations, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is often unable to move for prosecution. A proposal to amend PECA has been requested in its first half-yearly report to the Parliament, submitted in February 2018.

While the highly violent nature of our patriarchal society’s reaction to such ‘disgrace’ or the mere threat of it imparts crucial import to the need for efficacy at the FIA’s end, the FIA has historically abused the authority vested in it to perpetrate further human rights violations.

The recent development in which the country’s telecom watchdog, PTA, has offered to hand over the task of monitoring cyber crimes to the FIA citing lack of capacity, only compounds our concern over conferring absolute discretion and authority on the one institution and the potential ramifications.

The committee, which was tasked with the responsibility of drafting this PECA (Amendment) Bill 2018,  met on the 10th of October. The amendment faced opposition from various quarters and against which requests were submitted to the Senate from multiple avenues including IT Minister Dr. Khalid Maqbool Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noorulhaq Qadri as well as JUI (F) Senator Maulana Haideri the who walked out of the meeting and assured that his party would not be supporting any of the amendments.

The Bill was officially returned by the Senate on the 12th of October when Leader of the House Syed Shibli Faraz requested the secretariat to have the Bill withdrawn.

The impact of these developments is two-sided, on the one hand the inclusion of the blasphemy section (proposed as s.27C) and the overlap with Article 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code was bound to blur lines and create replication of offences within the criminal justice system.

The provision criminalising false blasphemy charges, on the other hand, was a welcome move as it could potentially serve to diminish instances of fake accusations which carry damning consequences for the accused when the penalty is as severe as the death penalty.