ISLAMABAD   -  The National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence on Monday held that there was lack of coordination among various ministries, authorities and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to deal with the issues related to cybercrimes at the federal and provincial levels. 

The committee that met under the chair of MNA Amjad Ali Khan observed that there was lack of coordination and communication among Ministry of Interior, Minister of Information Technology & Telecommunication, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and FIA to deal with cybercrime. 

The committee directed the interior ministry to end this stalemate. The meeting also expressed displeasure over the absence of Secretary Interior Yousaf Naseem Khokhar. 

A senior officer of the Ministry of Interior informed the committee that a preparatory meeting regarding cybercrime related issues was held in the ministry in August last year. He also informed that a coordination committee had been notified under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (FIA) of the Ministry of Interior and first meeting of the said committee was held on 6th October, 2020 to discuss the recommendations and proposals regarding amendments in Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA), 2016. He said that a compressive report would be presented before the committee in its meeting. 

The committee emphasised on the offences which are usually committed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Director FIA (Cyber Crime) informed the committee that these social media companies were mostly based in United States and the government of Pakistan was facing problems in receiving data of the real culprits due to non-signatory of the MLAT treaty. 

The senior officers from NACTA, PTA and FIA and ministries of defence, interior, and IT attended the meeting.