Firewall: Laws against junk mails, unsolicited texts

IT minister says PTA has been asked to take telecom companies on board and draft a law.

ISLAMABAD: The government has tasked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to draft laws against unwanted emails and mobile phone text messages that daily irk almost all users of modern IT gadgets.

In addition to a cybercrimes law which will deal with offenders of electronic crimes under the country’s criminal laws, a separate set of laws is being framed to deal with spamming, spoofing and stalking. Under this framework, these issues will be dealt with under the civil laws.

Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman told The Express Tribune that while her ministry was working on the draft of cybercrime laws which is now ready for legislation, leading IT and law experts proposed that there should be separate laws against irritating mails and texts instead of putting them all under the cybercrime laws which cover more serious offences.



She said the country’s telecom regulator PTA has been asked to take telecom companies on board and draft a law taking precedents from the Australian and Canadian versions of the laws on these issues.

Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world that does not have any law against electronic crimes. An ordinance promulgated in 2007 on cybercrimes had expired the following year. The outgoing parliament failed to introduce any legislation to this effect in its five-year tenure. Spamming is using email, SMS or other messaging systems to send unsolicited messages to multiple receivers.

Electronic spamming is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages (spam), especially advertising, indiscriminately. While the most widely recognised form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other instant messaging spam, mobile phone messaging spam, junk fax transmissions and others.

Email spoofing is sending emails with a forged sender address, usually with the intention of infecting/hacking a system or phishing.

Spoofing involves sending messages from a bogus email address or faking the email address of another user. Most servers have security features that prevent unauthorised users from sending messages. However, spammers often send spam messages from their own SMTP, which allows them to use fake e-mail addresses. Therefore, it is possible to receive e-mail from an address that is not the actual address of the person sending the message.

Stalking is unwanted or obsessive attention by an individual or group towards another person. This may include harassing or intimidating the victim by following them in person or monitoring them electronically.

The minister said a serious mode of stalking has already been covered in the proposed cybercrime laws, especially against women, under a separate chapter titled ‘Protection of women’. However, the proposed new law will cover those effects of crimes which are not very serious in nature.

The finalised draft of the electronic crimes bill has been sent to the law minister, who has been asked to place it before the federal cabinet in its next meeting, she added.

Rehman said she has asked the PTA to finalise the new draft as soon as possible and she intends to place both the proposed legislations before the parliament together.

Asked about how these laws would deal with unwanted mails generated out of Pakistan, she said the government would try its level best to deal with these issues.

“We are trying to incorporate the best practices used in the developed world. I cannot say every single irritant in the cyber world would be covered but we will try to the best of our capacity,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2014.