Cyber Laws in Pakistan

Cyber age is the current age of technology which revolves around the culture of Information Technology, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, overall: the world of computers and internet. All aspects of computing and technology; the database storing, protecting, accessing, processing, transmitting etc. With the fast-paced digital world, the use of regulations related to it has emerged immensely, known as the Cyber Laws. This is the branch of law that deals with all the rules, regulations, issues, disputes, rights related to online presence and businesses over the internet.

This law is majorly related to all things using technologies through the medium of internet. Be it online speech, cyber content or anything related to cyberspace. Cyber laws in Pakistan have become an integral part of the emerging cybercrimes. This article will tell you about all the cyber laws in Pakistan and how you can protect yourself using these laws. What should you be aware of and why is there a need to beware?

Pakistan has constituted several laws and introduced ordinances which regulate cyberspace. It is important to know that cybercrime has penal litigation and is dealt with under the criminal law. Among the cyber laws introduced, we will now discuss major ordinances which provide legislation for cyber spheres in Pakistan.

Electronic Transaction Ordinance (ETO), 2002 particularly deals with all the documentation, information, records, communications, and transactions through electronic medium. All cases associated with malfunctioning or cybercrime are dealt under this ordinance. This protects your online data as aforementioned and gives the victim remedies in case of any incident occurring. All e-commerce is regulated under this Ordinance.

Electronic/Cyber Crime Bill, 2007 or The Prevention of Electronic Crimes or Cyber Crimes Ordinance (PECO) was passed to provide an extension of laws to protect the rights of users over the internet. This Ordinance has laws which cover cyber terrorism, data damage, electronic forgery and fraud, cyberstalking, cyber spoofing/spamming, unauthorized access etc. This Ordinance has different penalties embedded for the offenders that may go up to six months of imprisonment, fines and in rare cases may include capital punishment. An interesting aspect is that: these laws are applied to every offender who commits such an offence in Pakistan regardless of their nationality or citizenship.

The third set of laws in Pakistan is Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA). PECA is one of the latest law sets introduced in Pakistan for the cyber law’s regulation and cyber rights protection. This chunk of legislation is in accordance with PECO, 2007. It particularly deals with internet crimes in Pakistan such as hacking or illegal access of data, electronic forgery and fraud, denial of service attack (DOS Attack), cyber terrorism etcetera.

1. All penalties which can be implied under matters related to web-domains or https while adding any personal info or while online shopping or browsing.
2. Securing online banking by allocating different PIN for all accounts, using trusted devices, and avoiding public devices for internet banking, being extra cautious with passwords and debit info.
3. Securing Social Media by using the right security features and using them rightly, turning on notification alerts and not going public unnecessarily with the data.
4. Securing Wi-Fi by not using default admin usernames and passwords of the router, a strong password and minimal sharing of it, switching the routers off while they are not in use.
5. Securing your browsing by specified user information settings, not trusting free content available online, beware of unknown links, malware, ransomware etc.

Using all preventive measures and knowing how to protect your rights through the laws present in the country is key information every citizen should know. This will lead to your peaceful cyber interactions and will ensure the crimes and offences are in check. But again, rights and responsibilities are a two-way road.

If cybercrime related rights apply and provide protection to citizens then the citizens and internet users, be it public or private/in-person should be mindful of their responsibilities and duties and refrain from any activity which could cause harm or might subject an individual or organization before any cyber law should be mindful about their responsibilities and duties as well. More awareness is needed specially among the students or youth so we can ensure a secure and malware protected future.