LHC seeks reply on plea against secret filming of individuals

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Tuesday sought detailed replies from the federal and provincial governments on a petition seeking a declaration that secretly filming, recording or photographing of individuals both at private and public places without their knowledge or consent, in the absence of any overriding public interest, was an unconstitutional act.

Justice Jawad Hassan was hearing a public interest petition filed by Salman Sufi, a social activist, who works for women empowerment and gender reforms, in particular. He moved the petition in the wake of recent incidents wherein the privacy of women was breached at the hands of both government and private entities with no regulation or scope for prevention, control or sanction. The petition also referred to a 2017 report by the Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan that women were subjected to online violence that was markedly different from the experience of men. It said out of 3,027 cybercrime cases reported to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) during August 2014-2015, 45 per cent involved electronic violence against women.

Sufi discussed a recent scandal of University of Balochistan where female students were subjected to harassment and blackmailed by the management staff through videos recorded by clandestine and officially installed cameras on campus. The petitioner pleaded that the right of privacy, especially pertaining to personal information, was inherently compounded and recognised in laws of Pakistan, but due to a lack of specific attribution it remained dormant with tacit ascriptions in other laws resulting in the deprivation of liberty and dignity for the citizens.

He asked the court to declare that installation and operation of CCTV cameras at any place accessible to the general public without displaying a proper notice or signage of the surveillance was unconstitutional and amounted to the breach of privacy.

He also sought directions to all public and private persons, bodies and institutions engaged in collection, storage or regulation of personal data of individuals to employ all necessary and proportionate safeguards against the prevention of leakage of the data. He said the organisations should be directed to identify all responsible persons with access to the data. Sufi argued the ministry of law and justice was needed to constitute a committee to advise and recommend legislation and promulgation of rules in pursuit of protection of “Constitutional Right of Privacy” of the subject. The judge directed the respondents to submit their replies by Dec 23.