Lahore:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said it was not aware of a lack of consultation on the controversial prevention of the Electronic Crimes Act (amendment) 2025 (PECA) which it had supported in both houses.

PPP -Vice President Sherry Rehman, who spoke to journalists in Islamabad, said Tuesday that they were told that all stakeholders would be taken on board, “as you can see that no thing happened”. She assured the journalists of her party’s support to support any changes to this law proposed by media bodies.

PPP -President Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also expressed the same concerns as Sherry and said it would have been better for this legislation if journalists’ organizations had been heard of creating a consensus.

PPP had chosen a similar strategy when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had introduced a media/social media in the Punjab assembly.

The assembly had adopted the bill last May, when those found guilty of broadcasting, publishing and preparing fake news could be punished for up to six months and could be fined up to RS3 million of special courts.

The government had then not agreed to send the draft bill to a selected committee consisting of opposition members to invite all stakeholders to consult and said that the bill had already been discussed sadly by the special committee.

Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider, who belongs to PPP, had then raised his serious concerns about the bill and said that, after reviewing it, he could send it back to the provincial assembly with his proposal.

Punjab PPP had also expressed similar concerns about the lack of consultation.

The governor first detained the bill in his office for more than ten days and later left a foreign tour, which left the office to the speaker of the Punjab assembly, which in his absence took over the charge of acting governor. The acting speaker assigned its consent to the bill.

Under Article 116 of the Constitution, Punjab had a time period.

Several PPP managers were reached for comment – some were not available, others refused to talk about the case and claimed that party leadership had already revealed its position on the case.

Former Punjab -Vice Wood Minister Hasan Askari Rizvi said of the case that “no party has a long broad vision or any concern for his public image. Political leaders are moving with a tunnel vision,” he said.