New Delhi, Jan 25 (IANS) Pakistan’s criminal justice system, long plagued by chronic delays and a staggering backlog of over 2.4 million pending cases as reported by the Law and Justice Commission, has come under intense scrutiny through a prominent cybercrime trial involving human rights lawyer Iman Zainab Mazari and political activist Hadi Ali Chattha. The case, initiated in August 2025 under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), exemplifies the tensions between judicial authority, p…
Latest Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act News & Updates
Islamabad, Jan 24 (IANS) Pakistani journalists have increasingly been subjected to intimidation in recent years under the country’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act for their online reporting, as well as through criminal defamation cases filed by public officials or private individuals. Journalists covering protests, political movements and sensitive regional issues face threats ranging from harassment to physical violence, a report said on Saturday. According to a report in ‘Journalism P…
Islamabad, Jan 17 (IANS) A leading human rights organisation called on Pakistani authorities to end judicial harassment of human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chatta in what it described as a “bogus case” relating to “anti-state” tweets.The remarks followed an order by the Islamabad district and sessions court on Friday instructing Pakistani law enforcement authorities to arrest lawyer and activist Imaan and her husband, Hadi, “within 24 hours”, warning that non-complian…
Islamabad, Jan 8 (IANS) A Pakistani magistrate has sent journalist Muhammad Aslam Shah to prison on judicial remand a day after he was arrested by National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) in a case lodged under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2025, local media reported on Thursday. The case was registered against Shah on December 29 after Tabish Raza Husnain, said to be an official of Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC), filed a complaint against him under Secti…
Islamabad, Jan 4 (IANS) The amendments to Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) were made in an opaque manner and passed by the Parliament in January last year without any consultations or debate, and though Senators had said that the amended law would not be used against journalists, the promise was broken as was clear from the intent behind introducing these amendments, a rights activist said. “The results of this opaque, undemocratic process have been damaging in terms of the …