Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill: law to help extradite foreign nationals through Interpol

The cyber crimes are increasing by every passing day and the cabinet approval of the e-crime bill, is ample proof of the fact that the government wants an absolute end to such activities, federal minister of IT said while addressing a press conference here on Thursday after the federal cabinet approved the Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill 2007.
The Minister Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari said the law would help the government in seeking extradition of foreign nationals through Interpol who are involved in criminal activities. "The law enforcement agencies would be able to seek extradition of foreign nationals residing in countries having extradition treaties signed with Pakistan," he added.
While giving details of the bill, he said that there are 17 such electronic crimes that did not come under the purview of any law ever before. These crimes are: criminal access, criminal data access, system damage, electronic fraud, electronic forgery, misuse of electronic device, unauthorised access to code, misuse of encryption, malicious code, cyber stalking, spamming, spoofing, unauthorised interception and cyber terrorism.
The punishment for cyber offences may extend to ten years with fine of not less than Rs 10 million and if death is caused in commission of cyber terrorism then the punishment may be either death or life imprisonment and fine depending on the heinousness of the crime. He said the e-crime law would require the internet companies to maintain their traffic data for at least six months to enable the agencies to investigate cases involving data stored by them.
Leghari said the government would create special IT tribunals in Islamabad as well as provincial headquarters to investigate and check growing incidents of crimes which remained unpunished for lack of specific law. Currently, the federal investigation agency (FIA) has been given the mandate to probe the e-crime cases.
"The law ministry will appoint the members of IT tribunal and the qualification of the chairman of IT tribunal will be equal to that of a judge of a high court. The maximum number of judges in the tribunal will be seven and all will have 10 years experience along with a good command on IT-related subjects".
"The government has followed a thorough consultative process, including study of similar laws being practised in 42 countries, to firm up the draft bill which after being passed by the legislature, would render reprehensible acts such as criminal intimidation and sexual harassment through internet, financial fraud and identity theft, hacking, illegal access to highly sensitive data and cyber terrorism which was becoming a global phenomenon", he recalled.
He told the journalists that the e-crime bill would be tabled in the parliament soon, which would help draw more business and improve Pakistan's e-readiness ranking as reflected in indices maintained by various agencies and business journals of the world.