PPP Senator Sherry Rehman on Sunday slammed the government for cancelling a scheduled session of the National Assembly without an official announcement and planning to promulgate two ordinances regarding election campaigning and social media.
A session of the National Assembly was scheduled for February 18 (Friday) only to be cancelled by President Dr Arif Alvi. The opposition had criticised the postponement.
The PTI government, which has promulgated over 70 ordinances since August 2018, has been facing strong criticism for heavily relying on ordinances for legislation.
Senator Rehman added to that criticism, saying that the ordinance regarding campaigning would allow government ministers “unprecedented ability to misuse state resources”. She said it showed how “far gone” the government was in its “fear of the people”.
She described the social media laws as “sweeping and draconian” in scope which would be used to further clamp down on dissent. “Make no mistake, this is not about protecting the vulnerable from cyber predations; quite the opposite,” she said.
