TAHIR AMIN

ISLAMABAD: The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has proposed to nominate the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) as “designated agency” for dealing with the Cyber Crimes under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016.

The first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee constituted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to develop the organizational structure and rules for implementation of PECA 2016 was held on Thursday. The committee reviewed PECA 2016 in the light of the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the IMC.

The meeting was chaired by the Federal Minister for Law & Justice Zahid Hamid, while Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Khawaja Zaheer Ahmad, Secretary MoIT, Special Secretary Interior ADG FIA, Member Telecom, Member Legal and senior officials from Law & Justice, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), NECTA, IB, ISI & MoIT also attended the meeting.

Sources revealed to Business Recorder that the meeting was informed that the number of cyber crimes cases are increasing day by day after the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016 enacted.

According to officials, currently, the FIA is receiving about 2,000-2100 complaints of Cyber Crimes and the number is increasing with the passage of time.

It was also revealed that the FIA is the only Agency having the capacity and capability for dealing with Cyber Crimes while putting in place state of the art labs, manpower and resources. However, the only lacuna was the absence of proper legislation, said sources, adding that after the new legislation the Agency will be empowered to act more promptly.

In the meeting, it was suggested that by keeping in view the capacity and capability of the FIA to deal with the Cyber Crimes, the committee may suggest FIA to be nominated as “designated agency” as enshrined in Section 29 of PECA 2016. However, decision in this regard is expected in the upcoming meeting.

The IMC also constituted a Sub-Committee comprising all agencies to come up with an action plan in the coming meeting.

The body also discussed in length the nomination of the courts for prosecution of Cyber Crimes Cases and establishment of cyber emergency response team. The participants were informed that about 100 cases may be sent for prosecution per month, however, final decision in this regard would be taken, once the framework tasked to the Sub-Committee is finalized.

Anusha Rehman said that the government is fully cognizant of the fact that Cyber Crime victims suffered a lot to get justice in the past due to non-availability of any proper Cyber Crime legislation to deal with such heinous crimes. New legislation would help address their grievances effectively, the minister added.