ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in its report submitted before the implementation committee on the top court’s judgment regarding minorities’ rights stated that at least 30 cases under The Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) 2016 were being under investigation and inquiry.
The report submitted to Additional Attorney General (AAG) Syed Nayyar Rizvi, chairman of the committee, stated that 15 FIRs had been lodged after PECA 2016 wherein allegations on the accused were; sharing blasphemous contents, creation of fake Facebook accounts, sharing family’s private pictures, sharing sectarian, racial and hate material through Facebook as well as on Youtube.
The top court had asked FIA for the list of cases registered under Section 11 (hate speech) of Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016.
The report further added that among these 15 cases, one case had been registered against a female namely Atia Yasmeen (not arrested) in Lahore on the complaint of Muhammad Usman Ghani, wherein it is alleged that the female uploaded a fake letter on Facebook under title Khatam-e-Nabuwat Pakistan containing threatening messages for Qadianis.
Besides these 15 cases, another 15 enquiries are under progress on the subject matter of sharing blasphemous contents on social media mostly on Facebook, the report stated.
The FIA further submitted that PECA 2016 was enacted by the Parliament in order to prevent un-authorised access with respect to information system and critical infrastructure as well as mechanism for matters connected with or ancillary thereto. The top court had also directed FIA to propose further amendments in relevant sections of PECA 2016 to make the offences cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable.
It pointed out that there were eight sections of PECA 2016 relating to serious offences of cybercrime but have been made non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable, which cause to hamper the impact of the law and creating hindrances in deterrence of the offenders.
The report also proposed sections to be made cognizable and non-cognizable for achieving better results to counter cybercrimes and cyber security of the country.
