Overview
- The Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Thursday directed the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency to refer a complaint against a newspaper columnist and the complainant to the Press Council of Pakistan as the proper forum to examine the published column.
- Committee members repeated the government's assurance that the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act should not be used against newspapers’ or TV channels’ digital platforms because print is regulated by the Press Council and broadcast by PEMRA.
- NCCIA told the committee it had only issued notices to obtain the columnist’s version, said no FIR was registered under PECA, the columnist had not replied, and the article was removed from the paper’s e‑paper but remained on the columnist’s Facebook page.
- The complaint was filed by Aman Babar, president of the Pakistan Administrative Service Officers Association, who objected to the columnist’s use of the phrase 'Bureau-Corrupts' as defamatory of bureaucrats.
- The committee also pushed for faster transfer of provincial PECA cases to the federal cyber unit, noted that only nine Sindh cases have moved so far, and used the hearing to take up related media issues including film censorship, government ad quotas, housing allotments and Radio Pakistan pension arrears.