Pakistan’s online free-speech group

Don’t Block the Blog has a post today entitled, “Draconian Cyber Crime in Pakistan.”

In it the writer recounts a seminar on this law, called the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2007, which is making its way through the Pakistani legislature. The seminar was led by attorney Zahid Jamil, who outlined the legal implications.

This law seems to be written so broadly as to allow the possibility of a seven-year jail sentence for erasing information from a computer disc. Such an action becomes an act of terrorism if “altering by addition, deletion, or change or attempting to alter information that may result in the imminent injury, sickness, or death to any segment of the population.”

In other words, anything with a computer attached can be called terrorist if the judge or prosecutor or legislator decides so.

Another part of the law states, “the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan), has been given complete and unrestricted control to arrest and confiscate material as they feel necessary, without forcing them to present a credible case before an arrest warrant is issued, if the FIA follows the law by the book they can pick up any person or property, hold them for up to one year (extensions allowed) before appearing into the courts to challenge the case.”

If this passes, Pakistan is well on the way to becoming its own Guantanamo.

(For more in depth analysis of the law, see the above-mentioned post.)