Media fraternity and opposition parties took place nationwide protests against the “controversial” prevention of electronic crimes (Peca) (amendment) 2025, which sailed the Senate on Tuesday after its passage in the National Assembly. According to the government, the aim of the improvement is to plan a loop around people involved in misinformation and false reports on social media platforms. During today’s meeting, the upper house was approved by the Peca Act (amendment) 2025 and the Pakistani Digital Nation’s 2024 design, which aimed at creating a digital society, economics and public affairs, in the middle of disruption of the opposition bench. Opposition parties and journalists’ authorities joined protests across the country against the dubious improvement of Peca’s right after many legal aspects declared “controversial” over “lack of clarity”, including the term “false report”. Media workers fear that the changed law will also be used to target them and will have an impact on the freedom of the press. Moreover, the media fraternity also expressed anger over the current government for the transfer of amendments without either consulting them or taking them into trust. When the demonstration took place in all the capitals of the country, today there were many journalists, lawyers and members of the civil society today the participation of agitation organized by the Pakistani Federal Union of journalists (PFJ) outside the National Press Club in Islamabad. The protesters began to march towards D-Chowc to record the protest, led by the president of the journalistic body Afzal Butt and the president of the NPC Azhar Jatoim against the Change Act. Journalists were considered chains as a sign of protests and chanting slogans against the Peca law at the rally. The protest assembly has changed to SIT-in after the demonstrators reached D-chowk. The President Pfuj, addressing the participants, explained that they were not against the regulations, but no one would be allowed to attack the freedom of expression in the country. D-chowk was deployed by heavy police contingents and a barbed wire was installed to try to stop the movement of the protesters. Several journalists suffered injuries after trying to remove barbed wire as they resisted the barriers to the installed police staff to continue their assembly. Some police staff also tried to arrest President Pfuj after stopping him in the administration of the assembly to a limited red zone. Another demonstration took place in front of the Lahore press club, to which the leader of Pakistan Tehreek-E-insf (PTI) and the opposition leader in Pandjab Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar and Jamaat-E-Islami (Ji) (Ji) Information about Qaiser Sharif. Bhachar said the opposition urged cash registers to contact all parties about a controversial act, including steps to make journalistic bodies trustworthy. He claimed that the current government should not take a mandate and added that the Peca law showed that the current organization was not a “democratic government”. The leader announced this to the journalistic community against the controversial law. In Karachi, journalists, lawyers and civil society members organized a joint protest and rejected the regulated law and described it as an attack on the silence of freedom of expression. Major journalist Mazhar Abbas, who addressed the protest assembly, said, “This is the beginning of the historical struggle against the civilian combat law when the first attack was carried out on the judiciary and the second on the media.” He expressed outrage in improving Peca and claimed that the digital media has been concentrated since 2016 and killed the ruler and said, “False messages are not a problem, but report messages are a real problem.” Abbas also said that some state elements wanted to keep journalism under control and warned the parties not to endanger new improvements: “otherwise everyone would be checked”. The head of the journalist was of the opinion that if the government seriously invented new regulations, it would have to be approved by consensus [all parties]. During the protest in front of the Karachi press club, journalists sang the slogans “not to Peca”. Former President of KPC Saeed Sarbazi announced that media fraternity will continue to organize gatherings and hunger strikes until the withdrawal of controversial law. Several important journalists and anchored have also condemned Peca changes, declared them against democratic standards and described the modifications as a transition to the silence of voices. Journalist Geo News Shahzad iqbal shared x posts of anchors’ Association Association in Pakistan and said: When the government of the silent democracy quiet. Pakistan himself must Pakistan himself. The right to disagree. “The shame of all politicians who approved the Black Law #peca Novedment Bill and the opposition, who supported it in the Permanent Committee of the Senate and only manifested itself in public. This proposal will kill freedom of expression and create a parallel judicial system that violates a fair court that violates a fair judgment, ”wrote Munizae Yahangir on X.” “Will there be all concerns expressed by journalists and activists of digital rights? “Peca is a terrorist strike for #freedomofExpress,” Amir Zia said. He said, “The passage of changes in the laws #peca without any debate revealed our democrats again. PMLN has a history of suppression #pressfreedom. ” “The passage of changes in the laws #peca without any debate has again revealed our Democrats,” Zia said. “The government did not consult any stakeholders and without debate on the basis of law through parliament,” criticized Usama Khilji, director of the civil society Bolo BHI, in X Post. Pfuj called “the black day for Pakistani democracy, the media, the freedoms of citizens and the freedom of the word”. “This day will always be remembered as a black day and parties that played their role in the approval of this black law, we still remind them,” said Pfuj. “We have already announced the protests with the introduction of the PFUJ and the Committee of the Committee (JAC) and today we pushed us to protest even further,” he added. Last week, the National Assembly approved PECA changes and changed the current controversial right and caused serious criticism of journalistic bodies and opposition.
