Cybercrime conviction rate ‘very low’
ISLAMABAD: The conviction rate in cybercrime cases over the past five years remained below 5 per cent, with only a minuscule proportion of Pakistan’s mobile and internet users reporting digital crimes to authorities.
According to a written reply submitted by the interior ministry to the National Assembly, since the year 2020, 7,020 accused have been arrested on cybercrime charges, with only 222 being convicted — a conviction rate of only 3.16pc.
Officials say that the poor conviction is due to a number of reasons, ranging from capacity issues to a lack of clarity among people about cybercrime laws and investigating agencies.
Authorities acknowledge that even though cybercrime complaints have increased each year since 2020, their reporting was still far below the actual number of offences.
Officials cite legal changes, capacity issues for fewer complaints, punishments
The data submitted to the National Assembly showed that since 2020, 639,564 complaints have been filed with FIA’s cybercrime cell, which verified 414,260 of them. These resulted in 73,825 inquiries and 5,713 cases filed in courts.
A breakdown of the data showed that of the 625 people arrested in 2020, 20 were convicted. The number was 38 out of As per the data, the number of complaints fell in 2024 after rising for three consecutive years. However, according to the spokesperson of FIA’s cybercrime wing, the data only reflected complaints in the first three quarters of 2024.
The number of complaints in the entire year stood at around 160,000.
The spokesperson said the number of complaints was still “quite less” compared to the number of internet users in the country.
Other reasons
As per the cybercrime wing’s estimation, the number of complaints should have exceeded 200,000 in 2024, the spokesperson added.
Latest figures published by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) showed more than 139 million mobile broadband subscribers in Pakistan and 143 million internet subscribers.
One of the reasons for fewer cases filed with the cybercrime wing of FIA was that the federal government has also empowered the police to register cybercrime cases.
The permission was granted through an amendment in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016 in December 2023.
It was aimed at tackling the rising tide of cybercrime across the country.
Islamabad police have already posted dedicated officers, including female officers, in one police station to lodge complaints related to offences in digital space.
The Punjab government is also establishing cybercrime desks in several police stations across the province.
Another key reason for the low number of complaints related to cybercrime was the repeated changes in investigation agencies.
A senior official of the Interior Ministry said these changes confuse the public and result in lower complaints.
FIA’s cybercrime wing had been tasked with investigating digital crimes, but in May 2024, the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication established the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency (NCCIA) as a “specialised agency” to replace the cybercrime wing of FIA.
The NCCIA could not even become functional before it was disbanded in December 2024 and handed over investigation powers to the FIA again.
Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2025