The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill (PECB) 2015 is said to significantly curtail online freedom of expression and endorse moral policing of the Internet, while doing little to combat terrorism. The ill-defined draft law – a part of the controversial National Action Plan – will give unprecedented power to the government, without giving it the technological or legal capability to implement it. As the bill successfully sails through the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology, the Herald looks back at the short history of how cyberspace laws have evolved in Pakistan — most of which relate to censorship and have little to do with issues such as financial fraud, theft of intellectual property or child pornography.

2002

The Internet has been around in Pakistan for a decade when the country takes its first step to regulate the virtual world with the Electronic Transactions Ordinance. The phenomenon of the Internet itself will grow rapidly hereon but not our understanding of it. Regulatory powers will be handed to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and adjustments will be made to the Pakistan Penal Code without practical guidelines for enforcement.

2007

The Prevention of Electronic Crime Ordinance (Peco) is introduced by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s regime and the National Response Centre for Cyber Crime of the Federal Investigation Agency is formed. This law will be pushed for another two years before it is opposed in the National Assembly, surprisingly by Anusha Rehman – IT minister since 2013 and currently the strongest proponent of the PECB – for meting out harsh punishments for ‘moral crimes’. The bill is sent for reconsideration, from which it will return in 2015 as the PECB.

2011

A man is arrested for hacking and defacing the President of Pakistan’s website. The otherwise powerless National Response Centre for Cyber Crime of the Federal Investigation Agency snaps into action. Despite shelves full of untouched complaints, the department manages to find a way to interpret their laws successfully, and the hacker is arrested and prosecuted in no time.

Also read: The state bytes back

2011

In an eventful year for the PTA, over 1,000 pornographic websites are blocked from viewership, with a further 170,000 names on its review list and a proposed list of words to be banned from use in text messaging. Since 2003, the PTA has remained the primary institution to regularly block websites that they deem immoral, blasphemous or against national interest.

2012

YouTube is indefinitely banned in Pakistan after a blasphemous film creates waves of fury across the Muslim world. The PTA has had numerous clashes with several other major websites in the past, including Facebook, WordPress, Flickr and IMDb. Worldwide access to YouTube had also somehow been blocked by PTA for a 24-hour period in 2008 after a similar incident involving objectionable material.

2013

According to an international survey, the number of Internet users in Pakistan has crossed the 30-million mark, with half of them browsing on their smartphones. This figure will increase exponentially over the coming years as the online world becomes a reality for the country, while the laws that may provide a secure cyberspace are yet to be ratified.

— Compiled from media reports

This was originally published in the Herald's May 2015 issue. To read more subscribe to the Herald in print.