FIA suggests amendments to PECA

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has proposed several amendments to improve Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA)-2016, as some clauses are impeding the effective investigation and successful prosecution. According to FIA report prepared for the Parliament as per section 53 of PECA-2016, all the offences under PECA, 2016 other than cyber terrorism [Section 10], offence against modesty of natural person [Section 21] and child pornography [Section 22] are non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable.
It is worthwhile to mention that the following serious offences which fall under PECA, 2016 are non-cognizable ie law enforcement agency is not authorized to initiate the investigation or arrest the accused without the prior permission of the magistrate: (i) Unauthorized Access/Modification/Deletion/Interference to Critical Infrastructure Information Systems/Data [Section 6, 7, 8]; (ii) Electronic Forgery [Section 13]; (iii) Electronic Fraud [Section 14]; (iv) Unauthorized Issuance of SIM [Section 17]; (v) Tampering of electronic equipment [Section 18]; (vi) Cyber Stalking [Section 24]; (vii) and Spoofing [Section 26].
The non-cognizable nature of these critical offences which pertains to the cyber security of the country is impeding the effective investigation and successful prosecution.
The investigation of these time-critical crimes demands an immediate response by the law enforcement agency to limit and contain the damage caused by offenders. The in-time response by the law enforcement agency may improve the detection and apprehension of the accused and also improve evidence collection for successful prosecution.
Moreover, in case of cyber crime, the digital evidence critical for the establishment of the crime lies in the electronic equipment under the use of the cyber-criminals. Therefore, the non-cognizable offences which require the prior permission of the court may give the opportunity for the criminals to erase/delete the critical digital evidences.
Furthermore, these major offences are bailable and this thing adversely affects the arrest of accused as bail is granted on first physical remand. These serious offences are compoundable, which means that at any stage an aggrieved person can enter into a compromise with the accused. Investigation in cyber crimes is an expensive process, and after setting the state machinery into motion, entering to compromise at any stage would result in wastage of state resources. A provision to receive cost for that from both the parties seems feasible as well as in interest of justice.
It is, therefore, suggested that Section 43 of PECA may be amended with the following suitable words such as "All the offences under this Act and abetment thereof shall be cognizable and non-bailable."
Documents further revealed that as internet has been an integral part of life, therefore, the cyber crime offences are overtaking the traditional crimes in Pakistan. The drastic increase in the reported incidents of cyber crime has raised the need for strengthening the NR3C, FIA for combating the electronic crimes in the future.
For this purpose, the PC-I for Phase-III of NR3C has been prepared and sent for approval. The new Phase-Ill includes the recruitment of new technical and ministerial staff, establishment of 09 new cyber crime police stations and digital forensic laboratories in Abbottabad, DI Khan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Gwadar, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Gilgit-Baltistan, technical up-gradation of six existing NR3C digital forensic laboratories and advanced trainings of technical officers, judicial officers, public prosecutors and investigation officers.