PECO 2007 was promulgated by General Musharraf in 2007. It has been re-promulgated since then and currently placed on the agenda of National Assembly for approval. The draft Bill was considered by the National Assembly Standing Committee on IT & Telecom and Committee members have also expressed their reservations on the various clauses of this Bill. But the Government has not considered those recommendations and has placed the Bill on agenda of National Assembly for approval.
The Bill creates a number of criminal offences involving misuse of electronic data, equipment and systems and use of such data and equipment in commission of other crimes. The power to investigate and prosecute the offences under the Bill is vested with FIA. An “ICT Tribunal” was to *be created by the Government to try such cases but the Tribunal has not been created yet resulting in extreme confusion and delays in bails of arrested persons. IT, telecom, software, calls center industry and civil society has serious reservations of the Bill on a number of grounds. The biggest concern is that offences which could be very complex are vaguely defined and carry severe penalties. For instance, cyber terrorism is very broadly defined and carries “death penalty”. The Bill contradicts and overlaps the provisions contained in Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Ability, neutrality and credibility of FIA is also a major concern to investigate such matters and register cases.
In past, Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2002 and Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act, 1996 have been misused by trigger happy officials of PTA/FIA to arrest innocent IT and software professionals including Faisal Chohan, CEO, Cogilent Solutions and Yasin Altaf and Afaque Ahmed of Breezecom. It is a known fact that email identity can be easily changed. So if someone sends a threatening email using another person’s email identity, FIA would go and arrest the person. By the time, the person proves his innocence and gets bailed out; he/she would have already spent months in jail for no crime. The Bill has a great potential of political exploitation to harass and arrest innocent persons and undermines the fundamental rights of citizens of Pakistan. The industry and civil society fears that prime victim of such a poorly drafted law would be educated youth, Internet users and IT/software professionals. The industry and civil society therefore demands revision of and re-drafting of the law, open this to public debate by involving all stakeholders and preparing a consensus draft which does not undermine civil liberties and does not provide sweeping powers to the Government agencies to arrest and prosecute anyone at will.
