Pakistan Registers 1,285 Cybercrime Cases in 2025, Online Harassment Tops the List

In a single year, Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) registered 1,285 cybercrime cases, a figure now confirmed through official data shared by the Ministry of Information Technology.

The single largest category of registered cybercrime cases in the reporting period was online harassment, with 545 FIRs, accounting for over 42% of all cybercrime cases registered. No other category comes close.

What makes this figure especially significant is its victim profile. Of the 545 harassment cases, 360 victims were women, 110 were men, and 15 were children. For women in particular, who already navigate physical safety concerns in public spaces, the internet has increasingly become an extension of that threat landscape rather than an escape from it.

Hate Speech and Misinformation: A Growing Digital Battlefield

The second largest category was hate speech, with 322 cases registered. Interestingly, the victim profile here reverses; 273 of the 322 victims were men, with 42 women and 5 children also affected. This shift suggests that hate speech online in Pakistan is more broadly distributed across gender lines, though its targets and motivations vary significantly.

Misinformation cases numbered 187, with men again forming the majority of victims at 160, followed by 21 women and 1 child. The misinformation category is particularly significant in Pakistan’s current environment.

Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), amended in January 2025, expanded its scope by broadening the definition of “fake news” and criminalizing defamation against government officials, while also establishing a new social media regulatory authority. The registration of 187 misinformation cases in this context will inevitably draw scrutiny over whether these cases reflect genuine public harm or the law’s controversial application against critics and journalists.

Defamation and Child Abuse: The Categories That Cannot Be Ignored

Defamation accounted for 173 cases in the period covered. In the digital age, a fabricated screenshot, a manipulated image, or a false social media post can destroy reputations within hours. The formal registration of 173 such cases points to an increasing willingness by victims to seek legal redress, though many more cases are believed to go unreported due to social stigma.

Perhaps the most alarming figure in the entire dataset is this: 58 cases of child sexual abuse were registered. These cases involving the exploitation of children online demand the most urgent policy response of all, and they represent only what was formally reported and registered as an FIR.

Pakistan’s National Assembly has been informed that cybercrime has evolved from an occasional nuisance into a pervasive threat, now impacting the finances, reputation, and personal liberty of citizens across the country. Child exploitation cases are the sharpest edge of that threat.

The Ministry of IT has confirmed that the NCCIA is actively conducting investigations against individuals implicated in cybercrime cases. The NCCIA was formally established in May 2024 under Section 51 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, replacing the Cybercrime Wing of the FIA, with authority to investigate and prosecute cybercrime across Pakistan.

Numbers Don’t Capture the Silence

Pakistan’s 1,285 registered cybercrime cases represent only a fraction of the actual scale of digital abuse. Reporting rates for online harassment, particularly for women, remain low due to social stigma, fear of victim-blaming, distrust in law enforcement, and a lack of awareness about available legal recourse.

Pakistan’s cybercrime ecosystem is expanding faster than the capacity being built to contain it, with a rising caseload that demonstrates the challenge is structural, not incidental.

The 360 women who formally reported online harassment in this period likely represent thousands more who stayed silent. The 58 child abuse cases that made it to FIR stage are the visible tip of an iceberg that child protection advocates have long warned is far larger than official data reflects.

Pakistan’s cybercrime challenge, then, is not just about legislation, agency mandates, or conviction rates. It is about building a digital culture and a law enforcement culture, where victims believe that coming forward is worth it. Until that shift happens, the 1,285 cases on the official record will continue to be a dramatic understatement of the harm being inflicted in Pakistan’s digital spaces every day.