KARACHI: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah has recommended the names of a district and sessions judge and a judicial magistrate to the federal law ministry for notifying them as desIgnated presiding officers of the cybercrime courts in the province.

Official sources told Dawn that the district and sessions judge of East, Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui, and judicial magistrate (East) Abdul Waheed were recommended to be the designated judges to try cybercrime cases in the province.

The sources saidthatthefederal law ministry had on Monday sent a letter to the SHC chief justice asking him to recommend the names of a district and sessions judge and a judicial magistrate for designating them as presiding officers of the courts where cybercrime cases would be dealt with.

Under Section 44 of the PECA, the federal government in consultation with the chief justice of the respective high court has to designate presiding officers of the courtsto try cybercrime cases.

The Act was promulgated on Aug 19, 2016 and as per its Section 1(5) it shall come into force at once.

While the FIA had already started implementation of the cybercrime law and arrested some suspects after the registration of cases against them, the judicial officers faced predicament when suspects were brought before them by the investigating agency for obtaining their physical custody for interrogation and investigation in the absence of any notification by the federal government.

The legal lacuna regarding the fe deral government`s notification of judicial officers to take cognizance of such crimes under the PECA was incidentally first pointed out by Judge Siddiqui when the FIA brought a suspect to the court ofa judicial magistrate of district east to seek his physical remand.

Later, the district and sessions judge of East pointed out the legal lacuna in a reference sent to the SHC chief justice requesting him to guide the judicial officers to deal with the cases under the provision of the PECA.