Cyber Crime Bill Curbs Basic Human Rights and Must Not be Passed: Bilawal

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Chairman of PPP, has said that current form of Cyber Crime Bill — that is set to get passed in Senate today — curbs basic human rights and must not be passed.

Mr. Bilawal was today briefed about the bill and its status in Senate.

It must be noted that Cyber Crime Bill was passed by National Assembly in April this year.

Also Read: Only 30 out of 342 NA Members Were Present for Vote on Cyber Crime Bill

However after certain opposition from PPP, the bill was deliberated upon heavily and was passed on to a senate committee to get it in a form acceptable to everyone.

Senate’s Committee, and a sub-committee, finally approved the bill earlier this week with a hope of getting it passed from Senate before the end of session.

However, this new development may hinder the bill and delay it further.

It must be noted that Pakistani legislators have been unable to get this very same bill passed for several years now.

It is interesting to note that our country is running without a cyber crime law, at a time when majority of financial and social transactions and interactions are held on internet.

Not to mention, online crimes have hiked tremendously during recent months due to increase in internet users that grew from just 4 million in 2014 to 34 million in 2016.

However, Mr. Bilawal — who has been pretty active in politics lately — wasn’t aware of the development and is unhappy with the bill. Common comprehension says that he — and other legislators — could have played a positive role in getting the bill passed a lot earlier to safeguard the common man from cyber crimes.