The ‘Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015’ will be tabled in parliament soon, so rights activists have stepped up efforts to finalise their recommendations for changes in the final draft.
This legislation aims to tackle the excesses committed under the (now defunct) Pakistan Electronic Crimes Ordinance (PECO) and do away with its flaws. “But the version that has emerged from the Cabinet Division does not do that,” said Bolo Bhi Director Farieha Aziz.
The director, however, says the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT that the government should not seek to pass the bill in a rush. “It would be advisable first to solicit feedback and correct the flaws to prevent it from having a detrimental impact on legitimate businesses and end-users,” she said.
Bolo Bhi has been collaborating and consulting with lawyers and technology experts to finalise their recommendations for the proposed cybercrime law. It will soon submit its proposals to the NA Standing Committee on IT, which has been tasked with reviewing and approving the law before it is presented to parliament.
In February 2014, the government decided to go for legislation to deal with crimes committed on the internet.
As a result, the proposed act was prepared by Jamil & Jamil, a Pakistani law firm, in consultation with the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) and the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Ispak). After approval of the IT ministry, the draft was sent to the Cabinet Division.
After year-long consultations with other stakeholders, the IT ministry plans to send the draft to the prime minister to table it in the National Assembly sometime this month, according to Aziz.
However, the consultations – before and after the bill was drafted – were largely ignored by the ministry, Aziz said, referring to the copy of the draft, which is also available on Bolo Bhi’s website.
This prompted them to hold consultations with cyber experts so that they could suggest changes in the draft beforehand.
