“PECA is between four ministries and it is at its nascent stage. Nothing has attained finality,” he said while appearing on Spotlight with Munizae Jahangir which was aired on Aaj News.

Aqeel went on to add that the “basic structure” of the amendment which was being talked about was the same former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb discussed with civil society and journalists. “We are taking it as a base.”

He shared that the government had meetings with international stakeholders like Meta, an American multinational technology conglomerate which owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The legal adviser mentioned that the social media giant has also a campaign “Take It Down.”

Aqeel reiterated that there was no final decision yet because things were being discussed among ministries of interior, information, law and information technology.

“This is the IT ministry’s bill and the discussion is going back and forth. There is a lot being discussed,” he said and assured that the government would bring “positive changes” to the law.

“There will not be objectionable changes,” Aqeel said.

When asked if the Pakistan Peoples Party was concerned over amendments to the PECA law, Sharmila Farooqui claimed that she got to know about this through newspapers.

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The PPP lawmaker added that the bill would land on the Senate Committee on Information Technology after being introduced in the assembly.

She wondered how many authorities the government would make as she noted that the authority ended a cybercrime authority and made the NICCA.

“There is a suggestion to gag social media. We don’t know what exactly is. Fake news is a challenge, but will you shut everything?” she said and asked, “Who’s running the show? What is the policy? Who is answering? What is going on we don’t know.”