Investigators of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have raised serious concerns over the significance of inclusion of "international cooperation" chapter in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016, since the federal government has not signed any Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with foreign countries even after a span of almost 10 years.

The investigators, seeking anonymity, told Business Recorder that inclusion of the international cooperation chapter in the PECA was aimed at extending cooperation with other international foreign agencies and organisations for the purpose of investigations or proceedings, offences related to information system, electronic communication or data for the collection of evidences in electronic crimes besides other crimes.

They asked how the agency can obtain data of alleged criminals from other countries or agencies since there is no official treaty exists through which they could bind the foreign agencies or organisations to share 'required data' of the criminals without compromising their national security. They said the agency, particularly the cybercrime circle, is facing numerous hardships in enforcing the PECA in its true spirit because of lack of the treaty.

Explaining the scenario, they said the agency, in many cases, is not getting 'required data' of alleged cyber criminals from the US despite repeated requests as the main servers of various social media websites, including Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and others are handled by US-based organisations.

In this context, the agency is also unable to properly intercept or investigate the Facebook accounts of accused allegedly involved in sharing blasphemous contents and spreading hatred besides other serious offences. "As it is a highly-sensitive matter, we repeatedly requested the ministries of Law, Interior and Foreign Affairs to play their active and due role in addressing this issue as they are not empowered to take up this matter alone," they regretted.

Recalling the backdrop of FIA cybercrime wing, they said it was established in 2008 with an aim to fight against emerging challenges of the cyber crimes. "Almost 10 years have been passed, but the federal government has yet to officially sign a mutual treaty," an FIA official said, adding although they used to work under extradition, there is still a need for the formal treaty.

The investigators asserted that the federal government should immediately start a dialogue with the US attaché. "Without compromising their national security, we just want the US government to share data of cyber criminals committing unlawful acts in Pakistan by using social media services," they demanded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017