The Senate on Tuesday passed controversial amendments to the country’s cybercrime laws — the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016 — triggering countrywide protests by media bodies who fear the changes would be used against journalists.
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Bill, 2025 adds Section 26(A) to Peca, which seeks to penalise perpetrators of “fake news” online. It says anyone who intentionally spreads, displays, or transmits false information likely to cause fear, panic, or unrest in society may face up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to Rs2 million, or both. The bill now awaits the president’s assent to become law.
Journalists have assailed the legislation as an “attack on freedom of expression”, while the opposition PTI has accused the PPP, an ally of the ruling coalition, of hypocrisy, slamming its support for the bill.
Following the Senate’s greenlight to the widely criticised amendments, journalists across all provinces of Pakistan staged protests, vowing to hold further rallies against the legislation.
The Peca bill was moved in the Senate by Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain on behalf of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.
As the bill was introduced, journalists present in the Senate’s press gallery staged a walkout in protest, recreating scenes witnessed last week when the amendments were passed by the National Assembly.
PTI’s Shibli Faraz, the leader of the opposition in the Senate, spoke out against it, highlighting that while laws were made to protect people, the Peca amendment aimed to “target a specific political party”.
“When a new law is introduced, its intent is scrutinised. Whether it’s social media or any other medium, it should operate within specific boundaries,” Faraz said. “The purpose of this bill is to target a specific political party.”
He added: “Laws are made to protect people, not to oppress them. It takes time to craft a law properly.”
Faraz appeared to be referring to the manner in which the NA rushed the contentious amendments to Peca last week, drawing opposition protests and triggering a walkout by journalists. PPP members had voiced their support during the voting.
Meanwhile, replying to Faraz after the bill’s passage, industries minister Hussain said that the bill was neither set in stone nor aimed at journalists.
“This law will not deal with TV newspapers but social media,” he said, adding that the amendment could also “be improved”. “Journalists have nothing to do with this bill,” he insisted.
The Senate also passed the Digital Nation bill, which now awaits the president’s assent as it was already approved by the NA. The Senate session was then adjourned indefinitely.
Amnesty International has warned that the changes to the “draconian” Peca would “further tighten the government’s grip over Pakistan’s heavily controlled digital landscape”.
The HRCP has also expressed deep concern, saying it was “likely to become yet another means of targeting political workers, human rights defenders, journalists and dissidents by effectively penalising criticism of state institutions”.
Journalists stage protests, assail govt
Following the Senate’s greenlight to the widely criticised Peca amendments, journalists in various major cities across the country staged protests against them.
According to DawnNews TV, cities where protests were held included Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Faisalabad, Bahawalnagar and Sukkur.
Protesters in Faisalabad held a banner reading “Black law unacceptable”, with some wearing handcuffs to demonstrate their fears of freedom of expression being curtailed.
Similar banner were seen in Karachi, with one stating “Peca Act not accepted”.
One of the media bodies participating in those was the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), which had called for nationwide protests.
At one such demonstration in Lahore, PFUJ Secretary General Arshad Ansari warned the government not to “steal citizen’s rights and strangle journalists”.
“You will have your programmes and your assemblies, but remember, no one will cover you. The media is the one that makes you a politician. It is the might of the media upon which you are standing,” he said.
“When you come at our throats, we’ll come at yours,” Ansari said. “You will fall but we won’t.”
“We will give a drop of poison to Peca and bury it for life. You will not be able to catch us, and your plans will be destroyed,” he further said.
Announcing to “aggressively protest, campaign and hold rallies”, the PFUJ secretary general stated that a Joint Action Committee would call for a plan of action.
“You will have protests in your assemblies. The assemblies of all four provinces will not function. There will be boycotts, the NA will be boycotted, we will shut down the streets, we will come outside your houses.
“We will not let you live until the Peca ordinance is withdrawn.”
Hinting at challenging the Peca amendments on legal forums, Ansari expressed the hope that high courts and the Supreme Court would “serve justice according to the Constitution”.
Senior journalist Wusatullah Khan said that media workers should have taken notice of the bill earlier since it was being discussed for the past couple of months, adding that “there were leaks about it as well”.
Speaking to DawnNews TV, he said: “The journalistic organisations or channels that are making noise now, there is a saying for this in English, ‘The punch that one remembers after the fight should be hit on one’s own face.’”
He added that despite the points of the bill being covered by the media, no one took notice of it yet created a ruckus when the NA passed the bill.
“Yesterday I heard PFUJ President Afzal Butt saying they were called for consultation; then why did they not tell journalists so they could organise themselves, or think about a protest?” Wusatullah said.
“This is the same government that said when Peca one came in 2016 that it was for the benefit of the public,” he highlighted, referring to when the original Peca Act was passed by the then-ruling PML-N.
“Now that it is too late they are creating a ruckus. What kind of resistance is this that couldn’t stop Peca in 2016 or any of the following amendments, whether during PTI’s tenure or this government?
“We just reminisce about the past but don’t change our attitude,” he concluded.
Senate passes Digital Nation bill
Meanwhile, the Senate also approved the ’Digital Nation Pakistan Bill, 2024, which was moved by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on behalf of IT minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja.
Presenting the bill, Tarar said the bill was aimed at digitising the whole system to align with the modern-day requirements.
The bill had already been passed by the NA, where it was introduced by Khawaja, the minister of State for IT and Telecommunication.
The bill aims to create a digital identity for citizens — to centralise social, economic and governance data — and to provide for the transformation of Pakistan into a digital nation, enabling a digital society, digital economy and digital governance.
However, an Amnesty official, in last week’s statement on Peca, had said: “These developments are in step with deployment of intrusive digital surveillance technologies and laws such as the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill, that fail to incorporate any human rights safeguards.”
According to state-run Radio Pakistan, another three bills to amend existing laws were introduced in the Senate today. These included the Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants Amendment Bill, 2025, the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Amendment Bill, 2025 and the Emigration Amendment Bill, 2025.
All three bills were moved by Tarar on behalf of the interior minister.
Proposed changes to Peca
Section 26(A) stated: “Whoever intentionally disseminates, publicly exhibits, or transmits any information through any information system, that he knows or has reason to believe to be false or fake and likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic or disorder or unrest in general public or society shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend upto three years or with fine which may extend to Rs2m or with both.”
According to a report issued by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, the bill “primarily seeks to modernise … the legislative framework for combating cybercrimes in Pakistan”, while the interior secretary emphasised that the bill was written in good faith and aimed to “protect the general public … and to make the in-field act more effective to protect people’s rights”.
In Section 26A of the amended law, the term has been explained as any information disseminated by a person that “he knows or has reason to believe to be false or fake and likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic or disorder or unrest in general public or society”.
The bill also suggests dissolving the FIA’s Cybercrime Wing and setting up a new National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to investigate illegal activities on social media.
It further proposes the establishment of the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority (SMPRA), which would perform a range of functions related to social media such as education, awareness, training, regulation, enlistment, blocking and more.
According to the bill, the SMPRA chairman will have the power to order the immediate blocking of any unlawful content on social media, while the authority will have the power to block content that contradicts the ideology of Pakistan or incites citizens to break the law.
It will also be authorised to block unlawful content targeting members of the judiciary, armed forces, parliament or provincial assemblies. Content deleted during parliamentary proceedings cannot be reuploaded on social media.
The amendment also proposes the establishment of a Social Media Complaint Council. In cases where social media platforms fail to comply with directives, the authority will have the power to approach the tribunal for enforcement.
The federal government will also establish a Social Media Protection Tribunal to enforce the provisions of the amended act.
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