Pakistan Now Has a Mirror

Indian politics is showing signs of the kind of prolonged political confrontations that have kept Pakistan under pressure over recent years, with opposition leaders challenging the administration, protests becoming a political battleground, and constitutional questions moving to the centre of public debate.

Key points

• Major PECA Amendment Act January 2025 Officially signed into law by President Asif Ali Zardari to explicitly criminalize "fake news".
• PECA Amendment Ordinance (Struck Down) February 2022 Promulgated as a temporary ordinance to criminalize defamation and criticism of administration bodies.
• Original PECA Enactment August 2016 Introduced Pakistan's primary criminal framework for addressing cybercrimes, hacking, online harassment, and digital data protection.
• Since 2022, Pakistan has experienced prolonged political instability marked by disputes over power, constitutional rules, elections, allegations of electoral manipulation, arrests and repeated street protests.
• The February 2024 general election created the political debate more toxic after conflicting reports over its legitimacy.

Let's take a leaf out of our abnormal neighbour's playbook here. India's leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday intensified his confrontation with power-hungry Narendra Modi by accusing him of cowardice and panic-induced relationships with other political leaders. Iran Thinks US Wrote Pakistan's MoU Tweets.

In a post on X, Gandhi remarked he had spent more than a decade confronting Modi and the RSS and particularly named Modi, Amit Shah, Mohan Bhagwat, Gyanesh Kumar and Ajit Doval guilty of violating India's Constitution.

Gandhi additionally challenged the government's decision to arrest opposition leaders and young protesters. Similar scenes we are not strangers to.

For context, the increasingly confrontational nature of Indian politics has finally reached common ground with Pakistan, where similar questions regarding political freedoms, institutional independence and the treatment of dissent have become part of national debate and sleepless fantasies.

Although the two countries have different political and institutional circumstances, pakistan offers a striking comparison. But India still has a long way to go. Pakistan has come a long way. Rules have changed.

PECA Amendment Ordinance (Struck Down) February 2022 Promulgated as a temporary ordinance to criminalize defamation and criticism of administration bodies. It was heavily contested and officially declared unconstitutional by the Islamabad High Court on April 8, 2022.

Major PECA Amendment Act January 2025 Officially signed into law by President Asif Ali Zardari to explicitly criminalize "fake news". It additionally paved the way for the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to handle online offenses.

In practice, the February 2024 general election created the political debate more toxic after conflicting reports over its legitimacy.

Meanwhile, the parallel is not that India and Pakistan are identical, or that their political trajectories have converged. Rather, both countries illustrate how polarization can rise when rival sides question the legitimacy of their opponents, institutions become central to political disputes, and street protests become instruments of resistance. 2 Reasons Why Petrol Can Cross Rs. 1, 000 in Pakistan.

Gandhi's warning that the administration could arrest thousands without stopping the movement is critical. Why can't we resolve political disagreements through dialogue? Why involve IMF and foreign governments to determine any outcome?

India's political future will depend on how these tensions develop. The situation doesn't look like it will soften up any time shortly.

For Pakistan, the past a number of years offer a reminder that once political differences spread throughout institutions and society, restoring stability can obtain harder. The views expressed here belong to the author. Stay Connected with ProPakistani.

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Taken together, the developments around pakistan Now Has a Mirror point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.