The government has officially authorised the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to trace and intercept calls and text messages in the “interest of national security”, according to a notification.
According to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), the authorisation for surveillance has been granted to the ISI under Section 54 (National security) of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act, 1996.
Section 54 of the Act states that in the interest of national security, the federal government may authorise any person or persons to intercept calls and messages or to trace calls through any telecommunication system.
The officer nominated by the intelligence agency for the designated task should not rank below Grade-18.
The notification reads the government is “pleased to authorise the officers not below the rank of grade 18 to be nominated from time to time by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to intercept calls and messages or to trace calls through any telecommunication system as envisaged under Section 54 of the Act”.
The development comes as the arbitrary ban on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is nearing five months. The Ministry of Interior has defended the prolonged suspension of X, claiming threats to national security and saying the platform propagates “misinformation and incites violence”. The ban on X was imposed on February 17, 2024, a week after the country went to polls.
Several pieces of legislation regarding internet regulation have either been passed or proposed since the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) formed its coalition government. The Punjab Defamation Law, 2024; proposed local registration for OTT platform in the absence of a data protection law; and the constitution of the Digital Rights Protection Authority (DRPA) are some of the cyber measures the new government has introduced at breakneck speed.
