‘Pakistan not signatory to cybercrime convention’

LAHORE:The ministry of interior on Friday informed the Lahore High Court that Pakistan had not signed so far “Budapest Convention” on cybercrime due to reservations shown by intelligence agencies.

In a written reply filed in a case against availability of hate material on social media against the judiciary, the ministry stated that a meeting for signing the convention was conducted on January 22 last.

However, it said, the agencies did not support the proposal pointing out that Israel was also signatory of it and Pakistan did not recognise Israel as a state. Moreover, it said, India was seriously thinking of signing Budapest Convention due to which Pakistan needed to be very careful in opting such possibilities.

The ministry stated that a committee had been constituted comprising all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies and ministry of foreign affairs to go clause by clause of all sections of Budapest Convention.

In a separate reply, the ministry of foreign affairs told the court that the Budapest convention was highly intrusive and would compromise out data. It said many countries outside Europe, including China, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were of the opinion that the convention was a regional initiative by the EU and severely compromised data sovereignty.