SHC dismisses plea seeking promulgation of laws to protect citizens’ data

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed a petition seeking a direction to the government to promulgate necessary laws for the protection of mobile phone data of the citizens as the lawyer insisted that the matter be heard by the constitutional bench of the high court after its formation.

A division bench of the high court headed by SHC Chief Justice Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui asked the petitioner about the case of the petitioner.

The petitioner who appeared in person submitted that the matter pertained to the constitutional bench in terms of the Article 202 A(3)(4)(5) of the Constitution. The high court pointed out a circular issued by the court in compliance with the direction of the Supreme Judicial Council that all benches of the court were operating as constitutional benches.

The counsel submitted that this was only a temporary arrangement and did not confer jurisdiction of the constitutional court to this bench. The high court observed that the judicial commission’s direction enabled all benches operating within the jurisdiction of the court to continue to operate as constitutional benches.

The bench observed that since the counsel was not inclined to proceed with the matter and avoided on such account therefore the petition was dismissed on non-prosecution.

The petitioner, M Tariq Mansoor, had submitted in the petition that media reports had highlighted that private personal data of 115 million mobile user citizens of the country had been breached and cyber criminals responsible for the data breach had demanded $ 2.1 million against providing such data to dark web.

He submitted that the chairman of then Senate standing committee on interior Rehman Malik had directed the Federal Investigation Agency to inquire into reports about the data breach involving the sale of data of 115 million Pakistanis by the hackers.

The petitioner informed the SHC that in the recent past, debit card details of as many as 19,864 Pakistani citizens were sold to the dark web, a part of the internet used by cyber criminals to sell the stolen data, but no action or inquiry was conducted to probe such a breach and arrest the persons involved in cybercrime.

The high court was requested to direct the federal government to constitute a high-level inquiry commission to ascertain the facts and prosecute the culprits involved in such data breach.

The petitioner also sought a directive for the mobile phone operators to protect the data of their users, including 165.41 million cellular subscribers, 76 million 3G and 4G subscribers, 3 million basic telephone subscribers and 78 million broadband subscribers, according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority data.

The petitioner also requested the SHC to direct the government to promulgate necessary legislation/code of conduct for making the protection of personal data of public mandatory by the telecom, cellular, utility and other public service provider companies.