A bill has reportedly been prepared by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) led government where up to a five-year imprisonment sentence can be given to “whoever scandalises or ridicules the Pakistan Army and judiciary through any medium”, reports Riazul Haq for Dawn.
It is to be noted that the bill is to amend the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)
The newspaper has reported that the summary and the bill will be forwarded to the federal cabinet soon.
It says that whoever makes, publishes, circulates any statement or disseminates information, through any medium, with an intention to ridicule or scandalise the judiciary, the armed forces or any of their members will be found guilty. And the punishment may extend to five years or with a fine which may go as high up as Rs 1 million or both.
Moreover, it says that the offender will be arrested without a warrant and the offence will be non-bailable and non-compoundable and can only be challenged in a sessions court.
Dawn also reached out to PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who said that he had not seen the draft but there had to be “some limit” to defaming someone.
“Everywhere in the world there is a defamation law and this does not happen that anyone comes up willy-nilly and says whatever they want,” he was quoted saying by Dawn.
However, later he denied his comments in a tweet as reported by Dawn, and said that he “simply cannot lend support to any draconian legislation”.
“I believe that Pakistan needs defamation laws with financial recourse to protect everyone from unsubstantiated accusations,” he explained.
PML-N’s Rohail Asghar also made it clear that no such laws should be passed by the government as he believed that there should be space for criticism.