THE GENERAL is at it again. In his efforts to curb freedom of speech in terror stricken Pakistan, Musharraf has passed a cyber law, which will be used to silence dissenting voices against the government. Earlier the country’s leading television channel had been blacked out for speaking against him.

However, what has angered civil rights groups and the public is that under this law, an officer can walk into any house or office, confiscate the computer and make an arrest. Moreover, he is not required to give any explanation to the person being arrested nor is he supposed to have any search or arrest warrant.

The move is likely to pressurise the bloggers and the citizens, who go online often. The Internet and access to several websites had already been restricted. Under the military rule, the freedom of expression had been highly curbed and the passing of the law is another step in this direction. With elections in Pakistan just around the corner, it is not the right time to curb freedom of speech, as this freedom would be essential in the smooth conduct of the elections.

Dictators around the world have earlier deployed ploys to control the flow of information and to reduce the growing dissent among the citizens by banning newspapers and other mediums of broadcasting. The Pakistan President has also banned hundreds of anti-Musharraf blogsites that had mushroomed following the death of Benazir Bhutto. The new media blogs cut across old barriers by giving the world a blow-by-blow account of the simmering turmoil taking place in Pakistan. There was now a growing student movement in the country, which had been trying to mobilise public opinion. This ban on blogs came two weeks after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf passed a new law that makes cyber terrorism, among other online crimes, punishable with death.

Under the new law, the article 13 on ‘cyber stalking’ makes it a crime to “take or distribute pictures or photographs of any person without his consent or knowledge.” Citizen journalism of the kind practiced by bloggers is based on precisely this sort of activity. This article threatens freedom of communication online.

Article 28 on retention of traffic data says, “A service provider shall, within its existing or required technical capability, retain its traffic data minimum for a period of 90 days and provide that data to the investigating agency or the investigating officer, when required. The federal government may extend the period to retain such data as and when it deems appropriate.” This gives the authorities control over internet users’ data and it is feared that this provision could be abused.

Adnan Rehmat, country director of internews said, “It will adversely affect how people access their information, how they express their opinion and will also affect how people inform themselves at large.”

For a man, who’s been facing flak from all quarters for human rights violations, the latest law is going to just add to the growing anarchy in Pakistan. And as Pakistan takes small tentative steps towards free and fair elections in order to strengthen the democracy, the blog ban is an indication that in Pakistan the more things change, the more they remain the same. Just goes on to prove that those who suppress freedom always do it in the name of law and order.