FIA on Thursday arrested two persons allegedly involved in capturing and transmitting pornographic videos/pictures of minor children.
The arrests came at the time when Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CP&WB) was holding awareness walk against Child abuse in the city.
FIA recovered sufficient illegal material from their possession during initial interrogation.
Accused were involved in the heinous business with the intent of sexual exploitation, an FIA investigator on condition of not to be named said.
FIA Cyber Crime Circle arrested Qaiser Shehzad and Umar Ziaryraf resident of Lane No-3 Mohalla Quaid-e-Azam colony Dhamial camp Rawalpindi. FIA received complaint that accused were possessing videos and pictures of minor children for sexual exploitation. Raiding team conducted raid and arrested both of them. During body search from the mobile phone of the accused illegal videos of children were recovered of which accused could not present any justification.
A case was registered under section 22 and 24 of Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 r/w 109 PPC.
It is worth mentioning here that Child pornography is increasing in Pakistan on account of toothless cyber laws and less punishment to curb the menace.
Only one criminal was punished after his involvement in facilitating international pornographers.
FIA Cyber Crime Circle arrested one Saadat Amin in May, 2018 for facilitating international child pornographers and thus earning US$ 50,000. The transactions were made through Western Union and Money Gram from seven countries. During forensic analysis of the seized digital media, more than 657,538 files (videos and pictures) related to child pornography were recovered from the accused.
Advocate Almas Ali Jovinda said, “Cyber laws to curb child pornography in our country are insufficient. A person committing this offence is punished with imprisonment for a term which may extent to seven years or with fine which may extend to Rs five million or with both”.
In America for the first time conviction, it is from 15 to 30 years while for the second time it is not less than 30 years. In India this crime was punishable from three to five years in 2000. The Indian government, however, revised its laws in 2015 and punishment was increased from five to seven years. Javindah demanded minimum imprisonment of 15 years in Pakistan since he believed child pornography was more heinous than terrorism in certain forms.
Roy Lindholt, a Nordic police liaison officer at royal Norwegian Embassy in Pakistan, appreciated the performance of FIA after a child pornographer Saadat Amin was punished by a court for seven years. In a letter to the DG FIA, he said maximum punishment in this case has only been possible due to international intelligence sharing and a thorough follow-up investigation by FIA Cyber Crime Unit. The police officer also pointed out flaws in Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) and said FIA’s keen interest may hopefully lead to a stronger legislation.
An FIA investigator, Asif Iqbal, was of the view that cyber laws were not sufficient in the country to punish child pornographers. He said there were only three clauses cognizable out of total 24 while the remaining 21 clauses were bailable. At international level child pornography was considered as the most heinous crime in nature after terrorism. He believed there should be at least life imprisonment for the child pornographers in Pakistan to control the menace.
