Anti-Cyber Crime Law Seeks Legislation

in Pakistan
Pakistan Minister for IT (Information Technology), Awais Ahmad Khan
Leghari visualizes cyber crime bill's adoption as a significant step in
enforcing a secure ambiance for business and encouraging e-
commerce.

On January 18, 2007 Awais Leghari said that the bill on Prevention of
Cyber Crimes outlined the knowledge about electronic crimes and
illegal online intrusion to spread it among general public. The bill would
help improve e-readiness in Pakistan that would rank the country
among indices drawn by various international business journals and
agencies. The federal cabinet will soon table the e-crime bill in the
parliament.

In an interview to PTV, Leghari said the IT Security Directorate will

deliver services to coordinate the functions of Transportation Ministry,
the National Intelligence Agency, security forces, agencies working for
the protection of family and children and related associations and
foundations concerned with online crime prevention.

After an official meeting, Leghari referred to a committee formed by

the Prime Minister and lead by Syed Shariffudin Pirzada - his advisor.
This committee will soon recommend formation of a special agency or
choose any of the existing law-enforcement agencies and assign it the
role of implementing the law, said the minister in a statement.

He further said that the new bill would regulate the usage of filtering
programs and setting up and running of Internet cafes. The law will
mandate ISPs to maintain records of e-mails and data for specific
periods of time.

Leghari said that the law under proposition namely Prevention of

Electronics Crime Bill 2006 imposes penalties varying between 6
months in jail to 17 types of execution for committing cyber crimes,
hacking, cyber terrorism, and unauthorized access of protected data.

He said that government had executed a thorough consultation

process along with examination of comparable laws implemented in 42
nations. The government did this to strengthen the draft bill, which
when turns into law will censure acts like criminal threats, sexual
torments through Internet, identity theft and financial fraud, hacking
and illegal access to confidential data, & cyber terrorism.
The law is designed to help the government in extraditing foreign
nationals engaged in any kind of criminal activity through the Internet.