While cybercrime complaints were regularly increase in the country, but the reporting was below expectations and the convictions were even far less.The National Assembly was informed over cybercrime complaints received in the last five years.The interior minister Mohsin Naqvi responded that 102,000 complaints were received by Cybercrime wing of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in 2020, and it has been constantly increasing.The written reply highlighted that 20 convictions were made in 2020 over cybercrime.The details highlighted that in 2021 – 115,868 complaints were received and 38 accused were convicted.While in 2022 the complaints increased to 145,667 and 48 offenders were convicted, and in 2023 – 92 persons were convicted out of 152,136 complaints.However the reply to the National Assembly noted that Complaints declined to 123,893 in 2024 while 24 persons accused were convicted.Meanwhile, spokesperson Cybercrime wing of FIA said that the figures quoted in the parliament reflected the complaints in the three quarters of 2024, while the complaints received in the complete year were 160,000.
“But this figure too was quite less compared to the number of internet user in the country, and wing had estimated that the complaints would exceed 200,000 figure mark in the year,” the spokesperson added.The current figures uploaded by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has highlighted that there were more than 139 million Mobile Broadband Subscribers in Pakistan and the internet subscribers in the country were more than 143 million.One reason for less number of cases filed with the cybercrime wing of FIA was that the federal government has empowered the police also to register cybercrime cases after the amendment in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.The amendment made in December 2023 was aimed at tackling the rising tide of cybercrime across the country and the Islamabad police has already established dedicated officials including female officers in one police station to lodge complaints related to offences in digital space. The Punjab government was in the process of establishing cybercrime desks in several police stations across the province.The other key reason for the low number of complaints related to cybercrime was the confusion in the government in this regard.The ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication MOIT) in May 2024 established ‘National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency (NCCIA)’ claiming that it was a specialised agency to replaced Cybercrime Wing of FIA.While the NCCIA could not become functional and execute the responsibilities for the purpose it was created, in December 2024 the government disbanded it and empowered the FIA for the task again.An interior ministry official said that the general public also gets confused due the juggling of authorities, however, the cybercrime wing will establish its foothold across the country with the help of FIA and the investigations of trans-provincial as well as trans-national of internet based crimes will be easier.
