Published in Express Tribune on April 19, 2021.
Committee responsible held its 4th consultative meeting after talks with all stakeholders
A committee formed by PM Imran Khan to review social media rules held its 4th consultative meeting, Federal Human Rights Minister and Chairperson of the committee Dr Shireen Mazari announced on Twitter.
“This morning the Comm on revisiting social media rules held its 4th consultative meeting. We have now met with all the stakeholders, their lawyers & the IHC petitioners plus the social media platform reps. We will be completing/sharing our recommends/revisions within a fortnight,” said Mazari in a Tweet.
The committee comprises Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari as chairperson and Parliamentary Secretary on Law & Justice Maleeka Bukhari, Senator Syed Ali Zafar, Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom Secretary as members, and PTA Chairman as secretary/member.
The committee is responsible for submitting its recommendations to the government within 30 days.
In February the IHC had given the federal government until April 2 to amend the new social media rules and directed AGP Khalid Javed Khan to submit a report in this regard at the next hearing of the case.
The new rules – framed under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) – placed all the internet service providers (ISPs) at par with social media companies and applied all the requirements of the social media platforms to the ISPs as well.
Under the new rules, a national coordinator was to be appointed to work with the stakeholders for regulating online systems.
