Farieha Aziz

On March 30, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) slapped a Rs20 million fine on fast bowler Naseem Shah for a post that was promptly deleted from his X account, and for which he publicly apologised. The tweet, posted from Shah’s official X account, had quote-tweeted the PCB’s post, which featured Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz being welcomed by the interior minister and the cricket board’s chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, at the opening ceremony of the Pakistan Super League.

Last week, a trial court in Islamabad convicted human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha under Pakistan’s highly controversial cybercrime law, known as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). The convictions against the husband-wife duo stem from tweets about enforced disappearances and other human rights concerns posted by Imaan and reposted by Hadi. For these X posts, both have been convicted under various sections of the cybercrime law.

Journalists across Pakistan are out on the streets protesting against The Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Act (PECA) 2025 and petitions against it are piling up in courts. The draconian law first introduced in 2016 by the Pakistan Muslim League – N (PML-N) has been made even more draconian. This time, it was done with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as willing collaborators. The amendments added a new provision, Section 26(A), to PECA.