Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 – Cyber Crime Act Pakistan

Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016

The purpose of this Act, which is to control the increasing “Cyber Crimes in Pakistan” and control the offences related with information systems. It is also known as Cyber Crimes Bill 2016. It provides mechanisms for the investigation, prosecution and trial of electronic crimes. It is Federal law and hence it extends to whole of Pakistan. The act was basically drafted in 2015 but it became controversial after its introduction. There are many clauses in this Act which are considered as restrictions on the freedom of people especially freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

In this Act activities such as sending text messages without the receiver’s consent or criticizing Government actions on Social Media are penalized with heavy fines and imprisonment in jail. Similarly in this Act, online criticism of religion, country, Courts of Pakistan, Armed forces of Pakistan and other institutions of Pakistan are also punished with fine and imprisonment.

People from different walks of life criticized this Act because Government can use it as tools to punish its opponents. Criticism in Social Media also has positive effects because it can highlight many important issues. But this bill bars any sort of criticism on social media. In nutshell Cyber Crimes Act 2016 (Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016) is a controversial piece of legislation.

Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 Free PDF Download

Here you can download the original copy of Cyber Crimes Act 2016 in PDF format by clicking on the link given below.

The Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016