Blasphemy, pornography missing from Cyber Crime Bill?

ISLAMABAD: The Cyber Crime Bill as passed by the National Assembly and later amended by the Senate has two most glaring omissions- it does neither cover the heinous crime of spreading and sharing blasphemous material through internet and social media nor take pornographic stuff as an offence.

Study of the bill shows that from spamming, spoofing, cyber stalking to malicious code, offences against modesty and dignity of a person almost 20 offences are included in the proposed law. However, there is no mention of the most serious crime of uploading and sharing blasphemous material on internet and through social media.

The proposed law though talks of the offence of “child pornography”, there is no word about those who spread pornographic material and contribute towards the degeneration of the social values of our society.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigations Agency receive a lot of complaints about the circulation of blasphemous material through internet and social media. The PTA is also busy in blocking such sites on daily basis.

Similarly, the Pakistani users of internet and social media are bombarded with pornographic material, which is freely available and easily accessible. However, despite all this, the Cyber Crime Bill does not talk about these two really sensitive areas of concern for the society.

A key legal mind of the PML-N government when contacted told The News on condition of not being named that without mentioning blasphemous and pornographic material, these crimes could be covered under the proposed Cyber Crime law.

When asked why these serious crimes are not included in the list of offences mentioned in the proposed bill, he said that some political parties were reluctant to mention “blasphemy” and “pornography” in the list of offences.

The offences mentioned in the bill include unauthorized access to information system or data; unauthorized copying or transmission of data; interference with information system or data; unauthorized access to critical infrastructure information system or data; unauthorized copying or transmission of critical infrastructure data; interference with critical infrastructure information system or data; glorification of an offence; cyber terrorism; hate speech; recruitment, funding and planning of terrorism; electronic forgery; electronic fraud; making, obtaining, or supplying device for use in offence; unauthorized use of identity information; unauthorized issuance of SIM cards etc; tampering, etc of communication equipment;  unauthorized interception; offences against dignity of a natural person; offences against modesty of a natural person and minor; child pornography; malicious code; cyber stalking; spamming; spoofing; and legal recognition of offences committed in relation to information system.

A source claimed that although the words “blasphemy” and “pornography” have not been used in the draft law but both have been covered in the bill. The sources claimed that the crime of blasphemy is covered under sections 10(b) and 34(1) of the bill. However, the reading of these sections do not reflect on blasphemous material.

The Section 10(b) talks of offence which advances “inter-faith, sectarian or ethnic hatred”. The Section 34(1) reads as: “(1) The Authority shall have the power to remove or block or issue directions for removal or blocking of access to an information through any information system if it considers it necessary in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court or commission of or incitement to an offence under this Act.”

This above section firstly does not cover blasphemous material against any faith, secondly it talks only about the removal of the objectionable material and does not entail punishment for the offender.

Regarding “pornography”, the source quote section 19 (1)(a)(b)(c) and section 34. Section 19 1(a)(b)(c) primarily deals with the offence against modesty of a person, whose face has been attached on a sexually implicit image. It is not said anywhere in this section or in any other part of the law that those uploading and sharing real pornographic material will be considered to have committed an offence and thus will be punished. The Section 34 only empowers the Authority (PTA) to block any material including that is against “decency or morality” but does not take it as an offence punishable under the law.