Rabbani questions creation of NCCIA

ISLAMABAD: Former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani took a strong exception of the creation of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), saying that like a thunderbolt the government has created the NCCIA at a time when, digital rights and privacy remain key issues for the state to address and demanding the government to ensure that it is not policing of social media.

“The body has been created without taking into confidence digital rights groups, the IT sector or even the public,” he said while condemning the creation of NCCIA in a statement on Monday.

Rabbani demanded that the government makes a public explanation of the need to create the NCCIA and reassure them that this is not a policing of the social media. He said even after almost a week of its creation the government has failed to take the people into confidence as to what the NCCIA will be able to achieve that the FIA could not achieve. Rabbani said the NCCIA, with its broad and unclear mandate, will probably lead to increased surveillance and data collection, encroaching upon personal liberties of the citizen.