LAHORE: PPP-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) Central Information Secretary Shazia Atta Marri on Wednesday sarcastically called the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) Ordinance a ‘marvel’ of modern history in which there is no definition of crime but a penalty on the offence has been prescribed.

However, party’s senior leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said the new ordinance was a necessity to some extent.

Flanked by central Punjab general secretary Syed Hassan Murtaza and information secretary Shehzad Saeed Cheema, Marri was talking to the media here on Wednesday.

She said the black law was “unconstitutional” and against the freedom of expression. “This is a war to defend the constitution, law, and democracy and we will fight this war with full force,” she said, pledging to resist the law.

She said the Islamabad High Court has stopped the FIA from arrests under Section 20 of the Peca Ordinance on the plea of journalists’ federal body.

Taunting the Imran Khan government for the frequent promulgation of ordinances bypassing formal lawmaking process through the parliament, the PPP-P leader said the prime minister doesn’t believe in the supremacy of the parliament.

“The selected Imran Khan should resign and accept the decision of the people who don’t want to see him in government even for a single day.”

Ms Marri said inflation and extremism have touched their peak in the country and hoped that fed up with the ‘poor’ performance of the government the people would come out on roads on the call of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

She claimed that armed forces were under attack of terrorists due to the wrong Afghan policy of Imran Khan.

About PPP’s long march on Islamabad that would start from Karachi on Feb 27, she said that it’s not a rally on the GT Road but a people’s march that would pass through all major towns of the country.

She said that Pakistan’s position has worsened in the latest corruption perception index and its rank has fallen 16 places and reached 140 out of 180 countries due to ‘bad’ policies of the most ‘corrupt’ government of the PTI.

She said Prime Minister Imran Khan did nothing for the people and only harmed and destroyed the national economy through ‘massive corruption during his four years of rule.

The PPP-P leader said that ‘incompetent’ PTI’s government has only been ‘looting’ billions of rupees from the nation by delaying the decision on the purchase of LNG.

Criticising the Punjab chief minister without naming him, Ms Marri called Usman Buzdar a ‘puppet’ in the hands of Imran Khan. “He is the most incompetent chief minister in the history of Punjab.”

Regarding a joint march by the PTI and Grand Democratic Alliance in Sindh, she said that the alliance claimed to be the real representatives of Sindhis but never raised a voice against inflation, power and gas shortage in the province.

Mr Murtaza said that days of the PTI government were numbered and the Imran Khan government would be ousted before the PPP march reached Islamabad.

Meanwhile, talking to the media at the Lahore High Court on Wednesday, Barrister Aitzaz expressed his apprehension that the law could be misused if not “rightly implemented”. The senior lawyer said the government was so incompetent that it itself did not know the “real objective” of the new law. The purpose of introducing the law, he added, was to control the fabricated news, but the government had not differentiated between the “fake” and “erroneous” news.

He said the journalists should be given protection against “human error” in their professional work.

In a bid to explain what fake news is, Ahsan say the claims of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz that she possessed some videos, which could prove innocence of her and her father Nawaz Sharif, is “fake” news. He also cited the leaking of an affidavit of Rana Shamim, former chief justice of Gilgit Baltistan, an audio of former chief justice Saqib Nisar and medical reports of Sharif as examples of “fake” news.

However, to a query, he said the allegations of corruption against the Sharif family, if not proved in the courts, could not be called fake news. “It is called incorrect news,” he claimed.

To another query, he said the PTI government could not bring Nawaz Sharif back.

About the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), he said the component parties of the opposition alliance were not even loyal to each other.

“I wish my party stays away from the smart moves of the opposition, especially of the PML-N,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2022