With the government in Pakistan trying to subdue online dissent, experts believe that the creation of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), which replaced the earlier Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was meant to silence journalists, human rights workers and critics of government policies.
On May 3, 2024, the government of Pakistan announced the formation of the NCCIA to investigate cybercrimes, enacted under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016. Earlier, these powers were held by the Federal Investigation Agency.
Internet rights experts and journalists call this move an attempt to silence free voices on social media.
According to the official statement, the head of the National Crimes Investigation Agency will be a director general and he will have the same powers as the provincial police chief or IG.
Central Minister of Information, Attaullah Tarar, speaking to the press, said the agency’s purpose is to protect people’s digital rights and prevent propaganda and rumours on social media.
Journalists and workers for Digital Rights say that the government should have consulted with them before establishing this new agency.
Journalist and former president of the Federal Union of Journalists, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Abid Abbasi, says that in the past when the PICA ordinance was brought to prevent electronic crimes, journalists became its first victims.
Mr Abid Abbasi said, “We also want social media to be regulated, but for this, everyone should sit down and decide what the method of regulation should be.”
As per him, if such laws get implemented, it will be used to target political workers, journalists and free voters. The government will then use these laws to suit their agenda and is “a weapon to attack people”.
The experts in Pakistan raised concerns regarding the curbing of free speech in the country after a recent Pakistani report titled “Erosion of Free Speech: The Silencing of Citizens, Political Parties and Media” stated that Pakistan witnessed reduced tolerance for online dissent, shutting down mobile networks on election day, throttling of internet access, forced suspension of social media platforms, and a raft of attacks and harassment of journalists and bloggers, including the murder of four journalists
Further, many Pakistani researchers also called the enactment of the new cyber agency an attempt to curb criticism of the Pak army by Tehreek-e-Insaf activists on social media.
Haroon Baloch, a digital rights expert in Pakistan, says that it seems that the powerful institutions of the department are afraid of the growing social media power of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf activists and are trying to silence their voices through the act.
He says that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has used social media effectively in the past and no other political party in the country even comes second to it.
According to the figures of Global Digital Insight in 2023, about 72 million people use social media in Pakistan. Apart from this, 4 million people use X, formerly Twitter, which has been closed in Pakistan for the past few months.
Among Pakistan’s political groups, former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is currently the most powerful party with huge fanfare on social media. Pakistani establishment has tried to censor PTI activities on social media especially after Imran Khan was arrested last year.
Imran Khan has nearly 20 million followers on X.
