High level committee has been constituted to review the draft bill 2013

ISLAMABAD ( NADEEM REPORT )

“It is expedient to prevent unauthorized acts with respect to information systems, hence prevention of e-crimes inevitable”, said Ms. Anusha Rehman, State Minister for IT & Telecom.

“It is expedient to prevent unauthorized acts with respect to information systems, establish related offences, provide mechanisms for investigation, prosecution, trial and international cooperation with respect thereof”, said Ms. Anusha Rahman, State Minister for IT & Telecom. The State Minister was chairing a meeting regarding Draft Prevention of E-Crimes Bill 2013 here today. Mr. Akhlaq A. Tarrar, Secretary IT, Dr. Ismail Shah, Chairman PTA, Mr. Kamran Ali Khattak, Member (Legal), Mr. Yasir Qadir, Member (Telecom) and representatives from FIA and IT Industry were also attended the meeting.

The objective of the meeting was to discuss the Draft Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill and to take all the stake holders on board. It was unanimously agreed that the said matter will be completed in accordance to the International Best Practices already adopted globally.

The Minister of State was of the view that with the modern era to be rightly denoted as the ‘Information Age’, there is a dire need that illegal and the unauthorized access to information system will be catered under the Draft Law in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedures (Cr. P.C.) and best practices evolved over a period of time in the region.

Furthermore, a high level committee has been constituted headed by Senior Legislative Advisor to Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights. The other members of the committee includes Member (Legal), MoIT and Director (IT), MoIT, a representative from IT Industry, PTA and FIA respectively. The committee has assigned the task to review the Draft Bill within one week time period and submit its report to Ministry of IT.   .

The Electronic Crimes Ordinance initially discussed and deliberated in the last Legislative Assembly which was eventually resulted in the form of Draft Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2013, prepared in consultation with all relevant stakeholders. After the end of the term of last Assembly, the matter has been taken up again by Ministry of IT in order to further deliberate and finalize the said Bill.