Man arrested over harassment charges

Accused recated fake profile of ex-employee, posted objectionable photos

PESHAWAR: A Federal Investigation Agency officer arrested a person who had created a woman’s fake profile on Facebook and had posted objectionable pictures of hers there to defame her.

An official of FIA, on the condition on anonymity, told The Express Tribune the woman was an ex-employee of the accused, Muhammad Kashif, who has an office in Deans Trade Center. The official added during her employment, Kashif had secretly installed a video camera to film her – from those films he obtained the pictures of the woman and posted them on the fake profile so that he could blackmail her.

“Last night [on Thursday] our cybercrimes police SHO, Adnan Jan, raided office of the accused and arrested him,” the official said, adding computers, along with other documents, were also seized from his possession.

Sans legislation

Another employee of FIA said there was no cybercrime law in the country, which was why they were forced to cover the case under Electronics Transactions Ordinance (ETO), 2002 which was basically meant for online frauds, including online banking scam.

“An FIR [against Kashif] has been registered under sections 36 (violation of privacy of information) and 37 (damage to information system) of ETO,” he added.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Farhan, who works for Bytes for All, which deals in cybercrimes against people, said it was true there was no cybercrime law in the country but such cases could be covered under a variety of other laws.

"This recent case is a heartening example of justice being served, unlike many other cases that get buried unattended due to a weak criminal justice system,” Hussain said.

The law-enforcers often blame the absence of anti-cybercrimes legislation as a major hindrance. However they forget that the penal code of the country is equipped with laws to deal with a number of gender-based violence crimes such as blackmail and stalking.

“We are hopeful the government will open-heartedly take the advice of the civil society experts on this matter and collaboratively prepare a good legislation that will further help tackle the increasing trend of online gender-based violence in the country," he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2016.