Published in Dawn
By: Rana Bilal
A man from Sargodha has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.2 million after a court in Lahore found him guilty of being part of global child pornography racket, DawnNewsTV reported on Thursday.
The convict, Sadat Amin, was handed the sentence by Muhammad Aamir Raza Baitu, a special judge for cyber crime cases.
A case was registered against Amin on April 11 last year by Deputy Director FIA Khalid Anees and prosecuted by Advocate Munam Bashir of FIA Cyber Crime Circle, Lahore.
During the investigation conducted by Assistant Director Cyber Crime FIA Muhammad Asif Iqbal, it was discovered that the man was part of a global child pornography racket spread across Sweden, Italy, United States and United Kingdom.
More than 650,000 pictures and videos related to child pornography were among the digital content seized from the man’s possession.
The FIA has drawn the government’s attention towards some flaws in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) wanting the government to review Sections 10, 21 and 22 — cyber terrorism, offences against modesty of a natural person and child pornography, saying there was a need to enhance punishment under these sections.
It was of the view that pace of change in the ‘tech world’ was very fast, requiring continuous matching regulations and legislation.
“But unfortunately, we are unable to maintain this and as a result are lagging far behind. The world is preparing itself to combat cyber crimes being committed on dark web and deep web, which are emerging challenges for law enforcement agencies across the world. Digital currency is fast replacing traditional currency, and the new generation is spending more time in the virtual world than physical.
“To deal with this, the government must wake up to its duty and equip the cyber crime wings with required technologies and address other areas under the Act to deal with this challenge, and also make required amendment to it (PECA),” an FIA official has suggested.
