There is no doubt that the country desperately and immediately needs a fresh and up-to-date cybercrime law and the federation must be appreciated for its willingness to finalise this legislation. However, it is important to include the input of stakeholders before the bill is converted into a law. Since the cybercrime law affects almost everyone in the country who uses the internet, it must be an authentic document with support from all corners of the society, which is currently not the case. There are many clauses in the IT ministry’s draft that not only compromise civil liberties but also suppress press freedom and undermine international cooperation against cyber-terrorism. If one looks at the clauses of the draft it is clear that little regard has been paid to the severe criticism the first draft of the bill received. Much of the bill’s vague, Orwellian, content remains in place. The ‘new’ draft still positions spamming as a crime punishable by a jail term, but allows ‘authorised marketing’. This leads to the question of who decides what spam is and what authorised marketing is. That aside, spoofing is apparently a bigger crime than cyber stalking, with the former punishable by three years in jail and the latter by two years. Online harassment seems to fall under the latter. Moreover, concerns regarding arrests without the approval of the court have not been addressed. The new draft still allows arrest, and seizure of equipment without court orders, but adds the caveat that a gazetted officer would be preferred during a raid. This suggests that whatever monitoring agency is created to check cybercrime will have more power than the police force. Minor concessions to the civil society include excluding public businesses providing free internet to customers, such as hotels and coffee shops, from storing customer data. However, internet cafes will be required to maintain detailed records of their clientele. The committee has also responded to criticism on the minimum age of 10 years that the earlier bill had set; it has since increased the juvenile age to 13 years. While it is good that the law has included the glorification of offence/hate speech as crimes with jail terms, no one is quite sure what constitutes hate speech in Pakistan. One positive development is that the law mandates the creation of an independent forensic laboratory to provide expert opinion to the courts in cybercrime-related issues. This laboratory will be independent of the investigation agency, which would allow at least some redressal mechanism. That said, civil society organisations still fear that dissent, privacy and freedom of expression will be under threat due to the law. They have asked the Senate Committee on Human Rights to review the bill. Moreover, concerns regarding arrests without the approval of the court have not been addressed. The new draft still allows arrest, and seizure of equipment without court orders, but adds the caveat that a gazetted officer would be preferred during a raid. This suggests that whatever monitoring agency is created to check cybercrime will have more power than the police force. Minor concessions to the civil society include excluding public businesses providing free internet to customers, such as hotels and coffee shops, from storing customer data. However, internet cafes will be required to maintain detailed records of their clientele. The committee has also responded to criticism on the minimum age of 10 years that the earlier bill had set; it has since increased the juvenile age to 13 years. While it is good that the law has included the glorification of offence/hate speech as crimes with jail terms, no one is quite sure what constitutes hate speech in Pakistan. One positive development is that the law mandates the creation of an independent forensic laboratory to provide expert opinion to the courts in cybercrime-related issues. This laboratory will be independent of the investigation agency, which would allow at least some redressal mechanism. That said, civil society organisations still fear that dissent, privacy and freedom of expression will be under threat due to the law. They have asked the Senate Committee on Human Rights to review the bill.
pk.shafaqna.com
