Blackmailing, Harassment Most Reported Crimes In 2018-19, NA Body Told

Director Cyber Wing Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Waqar Ahmed Chohan on Thursday said blackmailing and harassment over the social media portals were the most reported cyber crimes in the year 2018-19

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Feb, 2020 ) :Director Cyber Wing Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Waqar Ahmed Chohan on Thursday said blackmailing and harassment over the social media portals were the most reported cyber crimes in the year 2018-19.

Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence about cyber crimes, he said a comprehensive data had indicated an overall increase in the crime rate as in 2016, around 9,075 complaints were received that reached to 56,696 complaints in 2019.

The Director Cyber Wing told the committee that in 2019 FIA only managed to take up 27,000 cases due to shortage of investigators in the Wing. "It is anticipated as per the calculations that cyber crimes related cases will increase in the future and may go beyond 100,000 complaints a year", he added.

He pointed out that "This will primarily happen due to increase in public access to relevant forum to highlight such heinous crimes that will eventually result into decline of such cases after proper trial and punishment." He informed the committee that FIA had been successful to penalize a pedophile who had been reported by the Norwegian Police. The Norwegian Police informed the FIA about the gang providing child porn material from Pakistan on 'Dark web' who was traced and punished of imprisonment and Rs1.2 million fine after court trial, he added.

He said the Cyber Wing lacked locators to detect exact location of culprits committing cyber crimes, especially those involved in fraudulent and phishing phone calls, though the some agencies possessed the facility.

Waqar Chohan also highlighted the bottlenecks in data sharing from social media applications, money financial solution and even banks in case of inquiring financial fraud cases whereas legal framework also required amendments to make it more effective.

He requested the print and electronic media to highlight 9911 Helpline of the FIA Cyber Crime Wing so that people should reach out the relevant forum to report serious crimes.

Chairman Committee Member National Assembly (MNA) Amjid Ali Khan expressed his resentment over the absence of Chief Secretary Balochistan despite repeated notices sent by the committee over the issue of general sales tax shares of the cantonments from the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

He directed to issue non-bailable warrants of the Chief Secretary whereas after discussing the matter with committee members withdrew his directions and redirected to issue him another warning.

Amjid said : "Chief Secretary Balochistan's response is zero (negative) from the day one and he has breached the privilege of the committee." However, Secretary Defence Lieutenant General (R) Ikram ul Haq recommended that it would be an extreme step to issue non-bailable warrants of such a senior official and should be given another chance to appear before the committee.

The chairman of the committee also directed to constitute a three-member sub-committee on the matter of Grant-in-Aid to Cantonments Boards, not released by the Ministry of Finance.

The committee would comprise of MNA Aftab Shahban Mirani as its convener,Chaudhry Barjees Tahir as member and representatives of Ministry of Financeand Auditor General of Pakistan for technical assistance.