Sajjad Shaukat
IN the past, physical attack was conducted by a country on the rival state through military. Now, social media has changed the battleground. In this regard, Pakistan which is under cyber assault has taken appropriate security measures. Pakistan is facing an unprecedented onslaught of hybrid warfare due to regional and extra regional re-alignments by the enemies. Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has repeatedly said that Pakistan is facing the challenge of hybrid war, targeting common people, and its battlefield is human minds, which can be fought by strictly adhering to principles. In this respect, Indian intelligence agency RAW is making efforts to destabilise Pakistan through propaganda campaign, launched through fake websites in order to promoting acrimonious sense of dissent, sectarian violence, arousing sentiments of separatism and creating division among the political and religious entities.
On 12 August this year, in a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) pointed out: “Indian intelligence apparatus is involved in various cyber crimes, including deceitful fabrication by hacking personal mobiles and technical gadgets of government officials and military personnel…country’s intelligence apparatus and various targets of the attack are being investigated…an advisory is being sent to all government departments and institutions in order to identify lapses and enhance cyber-security measures in place….The last major cyber attack was towards the end of 2018 when several banks were targeted.” In its latest report, titled “Indian Chronicles”, the EU DisinfoLab, published on December 9, this year, exposed an Indian disinformation network, operating since 2005 to discredit nations, particularly Pakistan. It aims to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan and anti-Chinese feelings.
The report said: “Internationally, the network is working to improve the image of India and damage reputation of rival countries so that ultimately India may benefit from more support from international institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations…the network used fake personas of a dead human rights activist and journalists, and also tried to impersonate regular media and press agencies such as the EU Observer, the Economist and Voice of America….over 500 fake local media outlets in 95 countries helped reproduce negative iterations about Pakistan [or China]…the operation has covered 116 countries and nine regions.”
In this connection, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on December 11, 2020 called upon the United Nations and the European Union to take notice of and initiate a probe into a massive disinformation and propaganda campaign being run by India to promote anti-Pakistan sentiment. In the recent past, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram handed over to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres a dossier on India’s campaign to promote terrorism in Pakistan by pointing out that it was violation of international law, the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions. At a press briefing along with Director General (DG) ISPR Major-General Babar Iftikhar, Foreign Minister Qureshi stated on Nov 23, 2020, “India is sponsoring terrorism from its soil and beyond Pakistan [Afghanistan]…exposing Indian acts of sabotage like terror financing and supplying of weapons and equipment to various militant outfits operating on Pakistan’s soil…India is using terrorism as instrument of its foreign policy.”
The press briefing was a follow-up of their joint press conference of November 14, when DG ISPR Maj-Gen. Babar and Foreign Minister Qureshi unveiled a dossier containing “irrefutable evidence” of India’s sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan. Nevertheless, after due consultation process with various relevant national and international stake holders, revised social media rules (Unlawful Online Content Rules 2020) were prepared by committee constituted by PM Imran Khan under the Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Draft rules after vetting by MoL&J were processed by MoITT for cabinet, and stood approved on October 6 2020. It is misfortune of the country that social media platforms are being manipulated by various quarters in Pakistan to spread fake and false narratives, triggering chaos in society and adversely impacting country’s social, cultural and religious norms. While, the new rules define boundaries to protect masses from various online negativity i.e. blasphemy, discrediting state, abusing institutions, appointments, misleading individuals, inciting sectarian or ethnic hate, harassment and so on. Present government has shown will to enact laws and implement them for better management of internet environment. The decision has drawn some response from internet watchdogs, NGOs and activists who are trying to create a controversy. Notably, each country adopts and enacts set of laws which corroborate to its ideology, all domains of national security and external policy aims. And Pakistan’s digital economy is estimated to be increased the tune of US 5.5 $, which in some fields are growing at 100% annual rate. The rules have virtually no impact on E-Commerce.
Local NGOs and activist fear that global tech-companies may be forced to shut down their operations in Pakistan. However, the huge amount of business which these tech-giant generate will never be compromised for laws that do not impact their revenue in essence. In order to eliminate the adverse consequences of fake, false, immoral, unethical — anti-religious news — rumours on social media posts; it is obligation of every entity to ensure a chaos free society. This national obligation would protect and furthered by the enacted rules. Again, it is mentionable that removal-blocking of Unlawful Online Content Rules 2020 has not been prepared in the air, as a complete process was followed. Engagement was carried out with tech-companies, ISPs, digital watch dogs, legal fraternity and general public for input, while the document was complied in conformity with Article 19 of the constitution-Chapter II, para 4 of PECA.
—The writer is contributing columnist based in Lahore.
