Lahore:
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said that he was not aware of a lack of consultation on the Bill on Controversial Prevention of Electronic Crimes (amendment).
PPP vice-president Sherry Rehman, chatting with Islamabad journalists, said on Tuesday that all stakeholders would be taken on board, “what can see him did not happen”. She assured journalists for the support of her party to support the amendments to this law proposed by the media bodies.
PPP president Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also expressed the same concerns as Sherry, declaring that this would have been better for this legislation if journalists’ organizations had been consulted to forge a consensus.
The PPP had opted for a similar strategy when the Pakistani-Nawaz Muslim League (PML-N) had introduced a media / social media law in the Punjab assembly.
The Assembly had adopted the bill in May of last year under which people recognized as guilty of dissemination, editing and writing of false news could be punished up to six months and could be sentenced to a fine Until Rs3 million by special courts.
The government had not agreed to send the bill to a selected committee including opposition members to invite all stakeholders to consultation, saying that the bill had already been discussed by the Special Committee.
The governor of Punjab, Sardar Saleem Haider, who belongs to the PPP, had then raised his serious apprehensions on the bill and said that he, after having examined him, could return him to the provincial assembly with his suggestions.
The PUNJAB PPP had also expressed similar concerns concerning the lack of consultation.
The governor first retained the bill of his office for more than ten days and left later for a foreign tour, leaving the office to the president of the Punjab assembly which, in his absence, assumed the accusation of interim governor. The acting speaker granted his assent to the bill.
Under article 116 of the Constitution, the governor of Punjab had only 10 days to give his assent to the bill or send him back, which meant that if the governor intended to return to the Assembly, he would have done so as part of the stipulated period of time.
Several leaders of the PPP were contacted to comment – some were not available, others refused to talk about the issue by saying that party leaders have already revealed its position on the issue.
Former Punjab Guardian Minister Hasan Askari Rizvi said on the issue that “no party has a long vision or a concern for his public image. Political leaders move with a vision of the tunnel”, he said.
