Unclear Role: FIA Stops Accepting Cyber Crime Complaints

NR3C — FIA’s cyber crime wing — has stopped accepting any cyber crime complaints due to unclear role after Cyber Crime bill was passed by National Assembly and Senate and signed by President of Pakistan, reported Dawn News.

FIA officials were quoted as saying that their role is now unclear, and that they are unsure if they will be even mandated to peruse cyber crime complaints in future or not.

It maybe recalled that before approval of Cyber Crime bill, FIA used to rely on Electronic Transaction Ordinance (ETO) sections 36 and 37 for dealing with crimes pertaining to internet and other digital communication. However, after Cyber Crime Bill is passed the ETO has been repealed and FIA is without any law to process cyber crime complaints.

Moreover, after the approval of Cyber Crime Law, the FIA isn’t given any role as of yet — leaving them without any legal standing to process cyber crimes complaints.

“We cannot proceed on any relevant complaint till the government notifies the FIA role in the new cyber crime law”, an FIA official was quoted as saying.

With this, theoretically speaking, Pakistan is without any agency to process cyber crime complaints and any cyber crime may go unattended.

It is mindless to understand that after such a rush, why government is taking so long in notifying the roles of investigating agencies for Cyber Crime complaints.

On other hands, after people know that cyber crime bill has been passed, the number of complaints have grown many fold, leaving FIA almost clueless on how to process them.

It is still to be seen if investigating agencies, such as FIA and courts for example, are equipped with enough technical tools and knowledge to process cyber complaints.

Via Dawn

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • The local police should take responsibility…!! It is not FIA responsibility as they are limited to federal only…!!

  • What will happen to the pending cases registered with FIA before the approval of new Cyber Crime law?


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