Islamabad: Ignoring all reservations of the citizens’ Joint Action Committee on Cyber Crime Bill 2015, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication adopted the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015 on Thursday and referred it to parliament for the final nod.
If the parliament approves the “controversial” bill, then on the one hand white-hat (ethical) hackers and bored teenagers venturing into the illegal activity can end up in jail, and on the other, the officials investigating electronic crimes will be granted omnipotence with no checks and balances whatsoever on their actions.
Under the bill, political criticism and political expression in the form of analysis, commentary, blogs, cartoons, caricatures, memes, etc have been criminalised; white-hat hackers, hobbyists, people who hack for academic purposes to identify security flaws in systems, or teenagers who, albeit wrongly, deface websites for recreation could end up getting convicted as cyber terrorists.
The committee believes that in its current form, the draft bill would not counter crime or terrorism. Moreover, it feels that by removing checks and balances on investigation agencies, the authorities would be granted omnipotence.
