Qazi Jalal, a member of PTI's social media team, was arrested by the cyber crime wing of FIA. His charge - 'having an opinion'.
Jalal, who is in his 20s, was accused of criticizing the Pakistani judiciary on his twitter account. After his arrest, many people took on the social media, demanding justice for Jalal. Numerous tweets were posted, criticizing the current Nawaz government, the FIA, and the Cyber Crime Bill. The hashtag #ISupportPTIArrestMe started trending on twitter.
We Want Justice For Qazi Jalal. Otherwise Arrest Me. #ISupportPTIArrestMe pic.twitter.com/d63RRfo5VY
— ❤Shahmeer Ali❤ (@ShahmeerAliPTI) November 2, 2015
#ISupportPTIArrestMe BT I'll raise my voice against corrupt system till it would not b changed. pic.twitter.com/76H4dlLbtl
— Sumaira Jamil (@real_sumaira) November 2, 2015
Pakistan first #ISupportPTIArrestMe WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW REBELLION BECOMES OUR DUTY pic.twitter.com/qPiyS4F4Xd
— Yusra Baloch (@YusraBaloch) November 2, 2015
Know your Rights #ISupportPTIArrestMe
— Shaheer Adil (@adisilet) November 2, 2015
Some senior lawyers have taken this opportunity to criticize the Cyber Crime Bill, saying that it provides a lot of room for misinterpretation.
Over the recent years, the Pakistani population has been exposed to politics of criticism. Tune into any talk show, and you are most likely to find three members of different political parties throwing insults and criticisms at each other. The three arms of the government, the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive are often in conflict with each other and do not refrain from pointing fingers or criticizing each other's functionality. Political parties design their entire campaign around the idea of criticizing another party. But all of those things are considered legal, and not punishable.
We need to realize the kind of society we are evolving into. While on the one hand, there is an increased focus on the development of information technology; there is a restriction on speech and ideas, on the other hand. The Cyber Crime Bill, according to which the arrest has been made, is rather vague and and provides loopholes to those willing to exploit it. As far as the average citizen is concerned, he or she is not allowed to raise his voice against the government or any of its arms.