ISLAMABAD: Following successful talks between the government and the opposition, the Senate on Friday unanimously passed a law against cybercrime with various amendments, .

The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology had proposed 47 amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2016, while the upper house introduced another eight during Friday`s proceedings, bringing the total number of amendments to the law to 55.

The bill will now be sent to the National Assembly which is most likely to pass it with the amendments introduced in the Senate, with consensus.

Some of the amendments were of technical nature meant to address flaws in the Senate committee`s bill. The phrase prescribing punishment of 14-year imprisonment or/and fine extendable to Rs50 million for cyberterrorism has been omitted from clause 10-(b) and inserted after clause c. Subclause c in clause 10 had been inserted by the Senate panel to include advancing objectives of organisations, individuals and groups proscribed under the law in the list of offences.

Through another amendment passed on Friday, the punishment for cyber-stalking has been increased to three years from one year.

Clause 22 (3) of the bill has also been amended to specify the fine for the charge of spamming.

After the amendment, a fine starting from Rs50,000 and extendable to Rs5 million can be imposed on those transmitting harmful, fraudulent, misleading and illegal information.

Another amendment adds sub-clause 5 to clause 34 of the law to provide for an appeal against the decision of the authority in review within 30 days.

The law provides that the federal government may establish or designate a law enforcement agency as investigation agency for the purpose of investigation into offences under it. An amendment passed on Friday promises parliamentary oversight of such investigations.

Clause 49-A inserted in the law reads: `Theagencydesignatedorestablished under section 26 of this act shall submit a half yearly report to both houses of the parliament for consideration by the relevant committee in-camera, in respect of its activities, without disclosing identity, information, in a manner prescribed under this act.

Implementation of the bill will see punishment of up to 14-year imprisonment and Rs50m fine on electronic crimes. A special court will be established for hearing the cases falling under the act. A person can be tried under the law even if the crime is committed from outside Pakistan. But investigation into electronic crimes cannot be carried out without the court`s permission. With the permission of the court, the government will be able to seek help of other countries for investigation into cybercrime.IT companies registered with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority will be dealt with under the PTA act. Under this act, imprisonment of up to seven years can be awarded for funding terrorism or terrorist organisation through internet.

The bill passed by the NA Standing Committee on IT in 2015 was approved by the lower house on April 13 this year.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill states that Pakistan has no law to comprehensively deal with the growing threat of cybercrime. The centuries-old criminal justice legal framework is inadequate and illequipped to address the sophisticated online threats of the 21st century cyber-age.

The unique nature of these crimes finds no adequate or analogous provisions in the existing legislation that deals with traditional offline crime.

Effectively addressing these unique and unprecedented crimes with similarly unique and necessary procedural powers requires a completely new andcomprehensive legal framework that focuses on online conduct of individuals/organisations in the virtual world.

The legislation, therefore, establishes new of fences, including illegal access of data (hacking), as well as interference with data and information systems (DOS and DDOS attacks), specialised cyber-related electronic forgery and electronic fraud, cyber-terrorism (electronic or cyber attack on the critical information infrastructure), unauthorised interception conducted by civilians, use of malicious code viruses, identity theft, etc.

It says that the introduction of this legislation will effectively prevent cybercrime and shall also contribute to the national security of the nation whilstprovidingandenablingasecure environment or investment in IT, e-commerce and e-payment systems.

This bill shall also afford protection to citizens, which has hitherto not been completely ef fective, exposing them to unmitigated threats posed by cybercriminals both at home and abroad.