ISLAMABAD: The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) Amendment Bill 2025 was on Thursday passed by the National Assembly amid boycott from the press gallery by media persons.
Minister Rana Tanveer presented the Bill in the house, which was passed by the lower house by a majority vote. Journalists staged a walkout in protest against the Bill.
However, none of the coalition parties of the government opposed the Bill while the opposition walked out before the bill was introduced.
“We will protest against the bill and knock the doors of the court,” said a representative of journalists.
Secretary General PFUJ Arshad Ansari said on the passage of the Pica Act Amendment Bill 2025 from the National Assembly. They did the same thing that the Punjab government did last year on the issue of the defamation bill, called journalists to fill the house and passed the bill, even today it was decided that the bill would be passed by the National Assembly.
Arshad Ansari said. The government members said that there is a meeting at 2 o’clock but no meeting or consultation was held with us, we had said that the bill will not be presented until all the journalists take the representative parties on board, but like Punjab, these people also cheated in the federation.
The Secretary General of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) said they will protest the bill. We will also approach court. All journalistic organizations will protest against this bill and will announce the future course of action after consulting with all representative organizations within 24 hours.
Earlier, Joint Action Committee of Journalists’ organizations rejected the bill. It said amendments to Act were being made without consulting journalist organizations.
