KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the federal authorities to inform it about the progress of proposed legislation regarding personal data protection of citizens till April 20.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar also expressed displeasure over the law and justice and information technology and telecom ministries for not filing comments on a petition seeking a probe into reports regarding data breach of 115 million mobile phone users from Pakistan and its sale on the darknet.

An assistant attorney general submitted that the draft Personal Data Protection Bill had been sent to the ministry of law and justice for vetting and requested for more time.

The bench observed that it was a very serious and important issue and directed the secretaries of both the ministries to file a progress report about the proposed legislation on the next date.

Petitioner Tariq Mansoor contended that there was also no mechanism for protection of cross-border data transfer while such laws were in place in many other countries.

Earlier, the bench had also had directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to take all necessary preventive steps to save the mobile users’ data while a cybersecurity researcher of the PTA said an investigation was being conducted and the report was going to be concluded soon.

SHC summons home secretary for failing to hold monthly meeting of task force on missing persons

The ministry of interior in its comments had submitted that an inquiry board on the purported data leakage in its report said that the report of M/s Rewterz, a specialised cybersecurity services firm in Pakistan, itself confirmed that data shared was related to Pakistan mobile users and not of the National Database and Registration Authority while a detailed forensic analysis through various tests also reconfirmed that there was no data leakage on the part of Nadra.

The petitioner had submitted that there were reports of Rewterz about personal data breach of 115m Pakistani mobile phone users allegedly by telecom service providers and the same was being shown on the darknet by some cybercriminals, who were demanding 300 BTC [bitcoins] for the sale of the data.

He further argued that the data, including full names, complete addresses and CNICs of cellular users, was reportedly put for online sale and it was very alarming and affecting the privacy of citizens.

Missing person’s case

Another division bench of the SHC directed the home secretary to appear in court on April 1 for not complying with its order to hold monthly sessions of a provincial task force (PTF) for missing persons.

The bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto also directed the chief secretary to ensure that the meeting of the PTF must be held every month and in case of non-compliance he would also be summoned in person.

At the outset of the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer contended that Syed Moosa was picked up by law enforcement agencies in June 2015 in Landhi and since then his whereabouts were unknown.

The bench deplored that the investigating officer had failed to collect any report from internment centres while a home department representative conceded that the PTF session was lastly held four months back.

The bench said it had already issued directives that the sessions of a joint investigation team and PTF must be held every month, but the orders were not being complied with.

It also directed the interior secretary to collect reports from interment centres and submit the same on the next hearing.

The court asked the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency to file a fresh report about travel history of the missing person.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2021