How the PECA Amendment in Pakistan Suppresses Activists, Human Rights Defenders, and Civil Society Organizations
Pakistan has always had a complicated relationship with media freedom, but what has unfolded since January 2025 marks a qualitatively different and more dangerous chapter. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act 2025, signed into law on 29 January, has handed the state an instrument so blunt and broad that virtually any online criticism can now be criminalised. Journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, political activists, and civil society organisations have all found themselves in the crosshairs. The law did not emerge in a vacuum. It is the latest piece in a deliberate architecture of control being assembled under the de facto rule of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, who has accumulated more unaccountable power than any Pakistani military leader since Ayub Khan.
The 2025 PECA amendments were rushed through the National Assembly on 23 January and received presidential assent days later, without any meaningful consultation with media stakeholders, civil society organisations, or digital rights groups. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors, and the Pakistan Broadcasters Association all protested in a rare joint statement, warning that the law would become another weapon against journalists and dissenting voices.
At the heart of the legislation is a deliberately vague provision criminalising the dissemination of “fake or false” information, carrying a maximum sentence of three years in prison. The problem, as Amnesty International noted in its response, is that the law nowhere defines what “fake or false” actually means. Instead, it describes prohibited content in entirely subjective terms – anything that could cause “fear, panic, disorder, or unrest.” This is not a law designed to fight misinformation. It is a law designed to fight inconvenient truths. Human Rights Watch put it plainly: the amendment “neither protects the public from legitimate online security threats nor respects fundamental human rights.”
The law also establishes an entirely new, government-controlled regulatory architecture. It establishes the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority, a Social Media Complaint Council, Social Media Protection Tribunals, and a National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency – all with members appointed by the federal government, with no independent oversight. The Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority is bound to comply with government policy directives, meaning these are not neutral regulatory bodies but extensions of executive power operating under the cover of institutional names. The Pakistan Press Foundation called for the immediate suspension of the law pending consultation, noting that “the lack of clarity and consensus raises questions about the intent of introducing the amendments.”
The impact on the ground has been swift and chilling. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency registered 8,357 inquiries in 2025 alone, and as of June 2025, a total of 670 cases had been filed under PECA across Pakistan. Among those booked are journalists Farhan Mallick, Sohrab Barkat, and Ahmad Noorani, as well as prominent human rights activist Jalila Haider. 83 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members have been booked under PECA. Usama Khilji of digital rights organisation Bolo Bhi described the amendments as causing “wide-ranging procedural and substantive changes” that have been highly damaging, with citizens themselves facing barriers even when trying to file complaints due to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency’s (NCCIA) limited infrastructure and mandatory in-person reporting requirements. This is a system that makes it easy to prosecute and hard to seek redress.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) issued a detailed report through its Legislation Watch Cell, calling for the complete repeal of the law and rejecting any enforcement of PECA versions dating back to 2016. HRCP Director Farah Zia framed the amendments as part of a broader and deeply worrying trend of oppressive legislation aimed at eroding civic spaces and silencing dissent. The International Federation of Journalists called the amendments “a transparent attempt to further tighten control over digital expression and internet freedom under the guise of curbing misinformation.” Reporters Without Borders ranked Pakistan 158th out of 180 countries in its 2025 Press Freedom Index, amid a nearly 60 percent rise in violations against journalists. Freedom Network and the Pakistan Press Foundation documented over 270 incidents in 2025 alone.
None of this happens in isolation from the broader consolidation of power by Field Marshal Asim Munir. Until May 2025, Munir was widely regarded as “perhaps the most reviled Pakistani army chief since the 1971 war” due to his role in the relentless crackdown on former prime minister Imran Khan and the PTI. Under his watch, the 2024 national elections in Pakistan were manipulated, Khan was jailed on charges widely seen as politically motivated, and PTI supporters were tried in military courts. Then came the brief conflict with India in May 2025, which the Pakistani military used to engineer a “political resurrection” for Munir, culminating in his promotion to the rank of Field Marshal.
The 27th Constitutional Amendment, passed in November 2025, has since extended Munir’s term to five years, placed all three military branches under his command, stripped the Supreme Court of meaningful oversight by creating a new Federal Constitutional Court with judges appointed by the executive, and granted Munir lifetime immunity from prosecution. Military expert Ayesha Siddiqa has said that while this falls short of a formal martial law declaration, it represents “a military, which has been strong, becoming even stronger.” Forty-four U.S. lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing an “escalating campaign of transnational repression and a worsening human rights crisis,” and calling for sanctions against those responsible. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has raised grave concerns about military accountability and respect for the rule of law.
In the ongoing 61st session of UNHRC, NGO Reveil Commanautaire D’assistance aux Victimes (RECOVI) raised (18 March) concern about how military jurisdiction in Pakistan overshadowed the rule of law violating civilian human rights and how they are being dragged before military courts for trials.
What makes the PECA amendment especially dangerous is that it operates as the digital enforcement arm of this broader authoritarian consolidation. Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2026 concluded that “Pakistani authorities have increased suppression in violation of Pakistan’s international human rights obligations.” The story of PECA 2025 is not really about cybercrime. It is about who gets to speak, who gets silenced, and who decides in Pakistan, which is only the powerful military establishment.
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