ISLAMABAD: The conviction rate in cybercrime cases over the past five years remained below 5 per cent, with only a minuscule proportion of Pakistan’s mobile and internet users reporting digital crimes to authorities.
According to a written reply submitted by the interior ministry to the National Assembly, since the year 2020, 7,020 accused have been arrested on cybercrime charges, with only 222 being convicted — a conviction rate of only 3.16pc.
Officials say that the poor conviction is due to a number of reasons, ranging from capacity issues to a lack of clarity among people about cybercrime laws and investigating agencies.
Authorities acknowledge that even though cybercrime complaints have increased each year since 2020, their reporting was still far below the actual number of offences.
Officials cite legal changes, capacity issues for fewer complaints, punishments
The data submitted to the National Assembly showed that since 2020, 639,564 complaints have been filed with FIA’s cybercrime cell, which verified 414,260 of them. These resulted in 73,825 inquiries and 5,713 cases filed in courts.
A breakdown of the data showed that of the 625 people arrested in 2020, 20 were convicted. The number was 38 out of As per the data, the number of complaints fell in 2024 after rising for three consecutive years. However, according to the spokesperson of FIA’s cybercrime wing, the data only reflected complaints in the first three quarters of 2024.
The number of complaints in the entire year stood at around 160,000.
The spokesperson said the number of complaints was still “quite less” compared to the number of internet users in the country.
