ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Friday approved the controversial cybercrime bill — ‘The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act’ — recommending 50 amendments to the original draft.

The bill will now go back to the National Assembly where the proposed amendments will be discussed among members.

Some of the major amendments include:

Convicts under the bill will have 30 days to appeal the sentence in a high court.

The implementation of the law will be reviewed by relevant authorities twice in a year to weed out problems.

Pemra licencees, including TV and radio stations, do not fall under the ambit of this law.

State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman said on the occasion that the implementation of the cybercrime bill is the sole responsibility of the Interior Ministry.

Elaborating further, she said: "The law includes a total of 21 offences that can be imposed from activity on the Internet."

She went on to say that the government has put in all efforts to ensure that government agencies and officials are not able to misuse the law.

The bill, which has been widely criticised by the IT industry and members of civil society for curbing human rights and giving extraordinary powers to law enforcement agencies, was first passed by the NA standing committee on Information Technology (IT) in 2015, while it was approved by the lower house of the parliament on April 13 this year.

Salient features of the earlier bill: