ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: Two key legislators have not been included in the select committee of parliamentarians which will decide the status of the proposed Prevention of Cyber Crimes Ordinance (Peco) 2007.

When every other parliamentarian passed the ordinance, MNAs Marvi Memon and Advocate Anusha Rehman Khan were the only two members who suggested amendments to it. Their exclusion came as a surprise when the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology met earlier where both Marvi Memon and Anusha Rehman Khan registered their protests with the committee chairman, Chaudhry Mohammad Birjees Tahir. The two had been making it a point of raising the issue of Peco every time the committee met.

Probably the only two MNAs well versed on one of the most crucial subjects believed that the proposed ordinance carried massive violations of fundamental human rights and curbed civil liberties.

“We were the only two members to oppose it and recommended amendments when the rest of the house had approved it. There is nothing conceptually wrong with it but we only urge that the amendments be included,” said MNA Marvi Memon who had long been advocating that the draft bill be opened for debate and discussion with the public including human rights activists and civil society representatives.

The date for the select committee to deliberate on the subject was not yet clear.

The proposed ordinance was the gift of Gen Pervez Musharraf regime in 2007. It permitted interference in privacy, gave sweeping arbitrary powers of investigation and prosecution to investigating agencies, carried unclear definitions and worst of all awarded severe punishments, including death penalty.