By: Sidra Minhas
Pakistan’s cybercrime laws were introduced to protect users from online harassment and abuse, but have failed the most vulnerable. A study conducted by feminist researchers found that the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 and its 2025 amendments not only failed to protect women, transgender individuals, and religious minorities but also actively contributed to their digital persecution. Instead of shielding them from hate campaigns, these laws are selectively enforced to suppress dissent while enabling online abuse against marginalized groups. The FIA Cyber Crime Wing’s inaction, the Social Media Protection Authority’s (SMPA) overreach, and PECA 2025’s vague, punitive provisions have created a legal system protecting perpetrators rather than survivors.
PECA 2016 criminalizes online harassment, hate speech, doxxing, and privacy violations, yet protections remain unenforced for marginalized groups. Sections 18, 19, and 37 target dissidents and journalists but overlook digital hate campaigns against women, religious minorities, and trans persons. Though Section 18 outlaws doxxing, cases against women and trans activists are ignored by the FIA Cyber Crime Wing. Section 19 criminalizes online sexual harassment, yet feminist activists facing abuse struggle to take action. The issue isn’t legal gaps but institutional bias, where cases involving marginalized groups are deprioritized or dismissed.
The FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing, tasked with enforcing PECA, is underfunded, understaffed, and structurally incapable of protecting online harassment survivors. With only 15 cybercrime police stations for 240 million people, reporting remains difficult, especially for rural and vulnerable groups. Many cases involving women, trans persons, and religious minorities stall at reporting. Survivors face victim-blaming from FIA officers, who suggest they “stay offline” rather than act. Meanwhile, FIA prioritizes politically motivated cases, ignoring organized digital hate campaigns.
Compounding the issue, FIA investigators receive only Rs. 1,080 ($3.88) per case in operational allowances, limiting thorough investigations. Many cases face long delays or are ignored due to the agency’s lack of digital forensic expertise. As a result, digital harassment cases affecting marginalized groups rarely see prosecution, allowing perpetrators to continue abuse without consequences.
PECA 2025 expands state control over online spaces without strengthening protections for vulnerable users. The most troubling addition, the Social Media Protection Authority (SMPA), has unchecked power to block content, prosecute offenses, and regulate digital spaces without judicial oversight. SMPA fast-tracks cases of “anti-state content” but lacks mechanisms for cyber harassment, doxxing, or hate speech against marginalized groups. Blasphemy-related cases can now bypass lower courts, escalating directly to the Supreme Court, making it easier to criminalize religious minorities while ignoring those inciting violence. The law also extends government power to block content, silencing feminist, LGBTQ+, and human rights activism while allowing extremist hate speech.
The research highlights that PECA 2025 is not about improving digital safety—it strengthens state control over online narratives. By suppressing dissent instead of regulating digital abuse, the amendments widen the gap between what the law claims to protect and its actual enforcement. The absence of safeguards for marginalized communities ensures digital spaces remain hostile to those challenging power structures.
Pakistan’s cyber laws must prioritize survivor protection over state control. The FIA must establish independent cyber harassment units to address digital hate campaigns, ensuring cases of gendered, religious, and identity-based harassment are handled fairly by trained professionals. Civil remedies should allow survivors to file harassment claims with financial penalties for perpetrators, while courts must issue digital restraining orders against known harassers. Social media companies must be held accountable for failing to regulate hate speech in Urdu and regional languages, with mandatory transparency reports and real-time abuse takedown mechanisms.
The broad powers granted to the SMPA under PECA 2025 must be limited and subjected to judicial oversight to prevent abuse. Instead of criminalizing dissent, the state should hold digital hate networks accountable, including political parties, extremist groups, and influencers who orchestrate harassment campaigns. Without strict enforcement against coordinated digital hate, the law will remain a weapon against marginalized groups rather than a tool for justice.
The research proves Pakistan’s cyber laws are not designed to protect vulnerable users but to reinforce state narratives. As long as legal protections serve the state while failing survivors, marginalized communities will remain trapped in cycles of online abuse with no institutional recourse. Without urgent reform, Pakistan’s digital spaces will continue functioning as tools of oppression rather than justice. The time to act is now.
