The Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill, 2015 was presented in the National Assembly of Pakistan a few weeks ago by Minister of State of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Anusha Rehman. Today, the House will discuss the objects and minute details of the bill, according to our sources. Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill is perceived as a landmark in the cyber-crimes lawmaking and action planning in Pakistan. Currently, there is now law functional in Pakistan in regards to cyber crimes, e-theft, electronic terrorism and harassment through social media.
The bill is a 44 page detailed document which addresses almost all possible aspects of cyber-crimes, including DOS and DDOS attacks, electronic forgery, intellectual property crimes, malicious codes, viruses, unauthorized access, real time traffic intrusion, all kinds of hacking and data breaches.
Punishments and Fines
Illegal access to data, using misusing authority over data and getting access to data which is not authorized to an individual will be eligible for 3-6 months of imprisonment with a fine a one hundred thousand rupees. There will be a punishment of up to 6 years of imprisonment for anyone who interferes with the data of any secure governmental data installation, tries to shut it down, duplicate or inject it with malware.
There is a separate section in the Bill named “Cyber Security” which mentions a number of lethal crimes which have massive punishments. For example, impairing, deleting and attacking data and websites of Armed forces of Pakistan will end of in imprisonment of up to 14 years and 50 million rupees fine for the culprits involved.
Electronic forgery and fraud, which includes copy pasting key data, ATM card frauds, hacking bank passwords and websites, attacking, interfering with government data has 5 years imprisonment and a fine of 10 million rupees punishment in the said Bill.
There is a two year imprisonment on tapping calls, interception of electronic data and surveillance. This of course doesn’t apply to the governmental institutions, intelligence agencies under section 48.
There is a separate section for all the electronic crimes regarding women, sexual data communications. The bill asks for one year of imprisonment for anyone who is involved in photo editing of women to harm her social reputation, SMS,MMS and other communications of sexual nature and related crimes.
All forms of electronic data will be liable as a valid evidences in court. The other section of the bill addresses the legal jurisdictions of the investigation officer and process.
The Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill, 2015 could bring a revolutionary shift in the cyber-crimes domain of the Pakistani lawmaking. The key factor is the implementation, which still remains blurry, keeping in view the history of the authorities’ sincerity and vigilance.
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