The House passed the Bill with majority. The bill empowers an officer of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), not below the rank of Senior Joint Director and authorised by SBP, to impose a penalty of up to five hundred thousand rupees for each contravention, and where the contravention is a continuing one with a further penalty which may extend to ten thousand rupees for each day during which such contravention continues.
The Bill further stipulates that as "Provided that before taking action under this sub-section, a notice to show cause shall be issued by an officer of the State Bank not below the rank of Assistant Director and an opportunity of being heard shall be afforded.
Where the person guilty of such contravention is a company or a body corporate, every director, manager, secretary or other officer or agent thereof shall be deemed guilty of such contravention, if the contravention was committed with his knowledge or consent or if he did not exercise due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence.
If any person fails to pay the penalty imposed, under sub-section (1) within the time stipulated in the order imposing the penalty, the State Bank may, without any notice to such person, recover the amount of such penalty from the money owed to such person, and which may be under the custody of State Bank or any other person;
If any other person to whom notice has been sent under sub-section (3) fails to deduct the amount of penalty under the said sub-section, such person shall be liable to pay the amount of penalty to the State Bank, as if such person had committed the contravention.
Any person aggrieved by an order passed and penalty imposed under this section may, within thirty days of the order, prefer appeal to the Deputy Governor, State Bank to be designated by the Governor, State Bank who shall decide the appeal within ninety days. Any order passed by the Deputy Governor shall be final."
The House passed "The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016" with various amendments proposed by State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman and opposition members of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
The Bill consists of 51 clauses and was presented by State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman in the Lower House of the Parliament. Almost all amendments proposed by the Minister were incorporated in the Bill.
The House rejected most of the amendments presented by opposition members Shazia Marri of PPP, Dr Arif Alvi of PTI, Ali Raza Abdi of MQM and others.
Pakistan currently has no law to comprehensively deal with the growing threat of cyber crime. The centuries old criminal justice legal framework is inadequate and ill equipped to address the sophisticated online threats of the 21st Century cyber age.
While this new age has exacerbated both existing crimes when conducted with the use of the Internet, which are adequately addressed by the application of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002 in conjunction with existing criminal justice legislation, it has also given birth to completely new types of cyber crimes and criminals which cannot be effectively dealt with through the use of existing legislation.
The legislation therefore, establishes new offences including illegal access of data (hacking), as well as interference with data and information systems (DOS and DDOS attacks), specialised cyber related electronic forgery and electronic fraud, cyber terrorism (electronic or cyber attack on the critical information infrastructure), unauthorised interception conducted by civilians, use of malicious code viruses, identity theft, etc.
The legislation provides new investigative powers hitherto unavailable such as search and seizure of digital forensic evidence using technological means, production orders for electronic evidence, electronic evidence preservation orders, partial disclosure of traffic data, real time collection of data under certain circumstances and other enabling powers which are necessary to effectively investigate cyber crime cases. The very technical nature of the new powers that are necessary to investigate and prosecute these crimes require their exercise to be proportionate with the civil liberty protections afforded to citizens under the Constitution. This can only be achieved through strengthening existing protections and establishing new safeguards especially against abuse of these new and intrusive powers.
The Bill also includes specific safeguards to balance against these intrusive and extensive procedural powers in order to protect the privacy of citizens and avoid abuse of the exercise of these powers.
This legislation will effectively prevent cyber crimes and shall also contribute to the national security whilst providing and enabling a secure environment for investment in IT, e-commerce and e-payments systems. This Bill would also afford protection to citizens which has hitherto not been completely effective, exposing them to the unmitigated threats posed by cyber criminals both at home and abroad."
According to objectives of "The Foreigners (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the number of illegal immigrants have increased manifold in Pakistan which has created numerous socio-economic problems, negatively impacting on security in the country. The National Aliens Registration Authority (NARA) was not equipped to cope with the situation, and consequently the bill allowing for merger of NARA with NADRA to improve the registration of aliens in the country.