Prime Minister Imran Khan, his party leaders and spokespersons on Monday rejected criticism of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Amendment (PECA) Ordinance 2022 as unwarranted.

A meeting, chaired by the prime minister, said that no one could be vilified now after promulgation of the ordinance. The meeting also decided that the elements indulging in character assassination of the prime minister and other government figures would be taken to task and legal proceedings would be initiated against them.

The political and economic situation of the country was also discussed in the meeting, and the counter-strategy for the opposition’s anti-government movement was thrashed out.

Sources said Imran Khan gave a message of ‘All is well’ regarding the opposition’s campaign for a no-confidence motion. Taking notice of non-participation of ministers in talk shows, Imran said more ministers should go to talk shows and defend the government policy.

According to sources, the federal government decided to adopt a zero-tolerance policy against any character assassination campaign, and decided that legal action would be taken against those involved in vilification of the government figures.

The meeting discussed the PM’s much-talked about visit to Russia and believed that it would pave the way for signing of different agreements between the two countries and help improve Pakistan’s economic situation.

Separately, addressing the inaugural ceremony of the National E-Commerce Portal here on Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said when the PTI came to power, the economic situation was very bad and the country was almost bankrupt. Therefore, he had to tell his cabinet members that they should not panic. 

“And today, I am telling the opposition ‘not to panic’,” he added. Imran Khan recalled the time when he would ask his cricket team as skipper not to panic, particularly while facing the toughest opponent of that time, the West Indies.

The PM then asked the audience about the sentence he often used after coming to power, and then himself uttered ‘Don’t panic’ (ghabrana nahin).

Premier Imran claimed that in the coming days, it would become very difficult for even the cricketing giants to beat Pak cricket team, as the Pakistan cricket structure was being changed.

He said that the future of the world was rapidly moving towards digitalisation. “We can export $50 billion in information technology in the next few years, but in one to two years, thanks to a little work, these exports have increased from $2 billion to $3.75 billion,” he added.

Explaining the government policy, PM Imran said, “We are giving concessions to the information technology sector and we will remove all the obstacles coming in your way, so that we can provide facilities to our youth and take full advantage of the technology revolution.

“Already, we have reduced the tax for registered freelancers to zero; the fruits of foreign investment are also coming to the fore and the IT exports are increasing,” he claimed. The PM said the government was planning to expand the information technology (IT) sector in next few years, and the country and its youth must not miss the "technological revolution".

The PM pointed out that Bill Gates came to Pakistan at his invitation and he spent a lot of money on the campaign to eradicate polio in Pakistan and not a single case of polio was reported in Pakistan during the last one year.

He said that his interest was to become part of Pakistan's information technology and “I will not announce yet but in the coming days I will give good news in this regard.

“Our nation has made progress whenever it has the opportunity; but the system we have built after independence does not allow our majority to come up,” the premier said.

Giving an example of his cricketing days, the PM said “when I returned home after five years of learning cricket in England, I realised that there is not as much talent in Pakistan as there is in the whole world.”

He said that unlike Australia and England, Pakistan has immense talent despite not having regular system. Wasim Akram played Test cricket without playing first class cricket: this does not happen anywhere in the world, except for the country to which Allah has given a wealth of talent.

PM Imran Khan said “our system is an obstacle for a young person to come forward; we are making changes to it; we have brought a curriculum up to the fifth grade, information technology is the future and we have the same in the education system. “Working on an emergency basis, we are running crash courses and boot camps, we will train them as soon as the money comes.”

The prime minister contended that in information technology, women have the opportunity to come forward, no matter what the environment is, they can help their families, and thanks to this they do not face any restrictions. “We are lagging behind, and India is ahead. In 2000, India's information technology exports were one billion dollars and in 10 years, it has surpassed 100 billion dollars. If they can develop, we can also," he emphasised.