Myanmar abolishes 1950 law which was used to silence dissidents

Myanmar  has taken a major step towards transition to democracy by abolishing a decades-old law which was used by past military rule to jail thousands of dissidents.
Htin Kyaw, President of Myanmar, has signed the legislation to abolish the law, the Emergency Provisions Act, which is among the other draconian measures which empowered the government to arrest people on the grounds of reading other countries’ newspapers or listening to broadcasters like BBC  and impose punishment of up to seven years. The government, which is dominated by the National League for Democracy, the party of the Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Ki, brought this much needed change and remarked:
“We have abolished the Emergency Provisions Act because it was the tool used by military regimes to suppress political dissidents, and the law does not fit with the current situation of democratization in the country.”