NA Directs Government To Appoint Competent Officers In FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing

According to the latest reports, the National Assembly Standing Committee on ITT has directed the government to take immediate steps in order to appoint permanent, competent, and experienced officers in the Cyber Crime Wing of FIA. They were further directed to provide them with all the necessary resources.

Performance of FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing Must Be Improved

For directing the government, a committee meeting was held on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali. The meeting was briefed on Cyber-Crime, Cyber Security, and Social Media Rules by the FIA and PTA officials. While responding to the committee members’ concerns regarding the non-functioning of telecommunication services in flood-hit areas of the country, PTA stated that the services of all the cellular companies in most parts of the flood-hit areas had been restored.

The PTA officials further said that owing to the flood situation around 3,400 towers became non-functional. Still, the companies have restored over 3,200 sites and are working on the rest of the towers. The remaining sites are located in areas inundated by rainwater, once the water recedes the sites will be made operational. PTA is also extending its continued support for awareness of the general public apart from the restoration of telecom infrastructure. In addition to that, it is also working on the distribution of funds to affectees.

During the meeting, the committee members expressed serious concern about the rise in cybercrime complaints during the last three years. They even criticized:

• Process of registration of complaints
• Shortage of competent staff to handle registered complaints
• Shortage of the latest equipment for further investigation of the registered complaints

The members of the committee urged the department to revisit the direction of the work and address the communication gap between all the concerned departments. Moreover, they also discussed the negative propaganda and campaigns against politicians, journalists, and institutions on social media together with the harassment of elected representatives and their families. The capacity building of the staff working in the cybercrime wing of the FIA was also emphasized.

FIA was directed to prepare proposals for the improvement of the performance of the cybercrime wing. They need to present them before the committee in the next meeting. Even though, the committee unanimously approved the minutes of its previous meetings held on 5th September 2022.

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