Dear all,
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance (PECO) was promulgated in Musharraf era in 2007 as a Presidential Ordinance. The law provided sweeping powers to the investigating agencies and termed as detrimental to civil liberties and fundamental rights of the people of Pakistan.
The law was tabled before National Assembly in 2009 for enactment as Bill and a movement erupted against PECO terming it draconian and a tool for the Government to exploit it for putting anyone behind the bars, especially the educated people mostly hailing from IT industry and academia.
Notable parliamentarians led by Anusha Rahman, Marvi Memon and activists of IT and telecom industry, academia, civil society including PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association), ISPAK (Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan) and others launched a nationwide movement against the law. Finally, the then Prime Minister, in October 2009, announced with drawl of the Bill at the floor of National Assembly and handing it over to Select Committee of the National Assembly to look into controversial clauses of the Bill, have a consultation with industry stakeholders and come up with a revised Bill to be placed before National Assembly.
The Select Committee had its 3rd meeting last Friday, 30 June 2012, at Islamabad in which ISPAK, PASHA, telecom operators and other industry stakeholders were asked to come up with a revised draft within next 15 days. This draft would be discussed and finalized by the Select Committee and then placed for approval of the Parliament in next month or so.
The original draft of the Bill is placed at http://www.ispak.pk/Downloads/E-Crime_Ordinance_2009.pdf.
We’d appreciate if the learned members of this group can go through this draft and suggest changes and amendments in this draft along with a brief explanation for each change or amendment required. Kindly post your amendments latest by 10 July 2012 so that after industry and stakeholders consultations, these can be finalized by 15 July 2012 and submitted to the Select Committee of the National Assembly.
General criticism on this draft Bill would be of little value as we’re looking forward to receive implementable amendments in the draft. If any clause to be deleted, that can also be mentioned with a brief explanation on why it is necessary to delete a clause.
It would also be appreciated if this mail is circulated widely on various lists/blogs so that maximum view of the community could be obtained.
Kind regards.
Wahaj us Siraj
Convener, ISPAK
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