National Assembly Body Expresses Concerns Over Interior Secy's Consecutive Absence From Meeting

Muhammad Irfan Published January 22, 2020 | 07:11 PM

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Wednesday expressed its grave concerns over the absence of federal secretary, Ministry of Interior in the consecutive three meetings of the committee

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2020 ) :The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Wednesday expressed its grave concerns over the absence of federal secretary, Ministry of Interior in the consecutive three meetings of the committee.

The committee meeting which was held here under the chairmanship of Ali Khan Jadoon directed the Secretaries Cabinet/Establishment Divisions to take stern action against him and decided to take up the matter with the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges.

The secretary, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication briefed the committee.

He explained that funds had been utilized on all the projects. In this regard, they had designed the programmes to cater for the needs of unserved and underserved segment of the population across the country, he added.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman apprised the committee that complaints regarding online contents would be registered in the PTA.

The Section 37 of Pakistan Electronic Crime Act empowered the PTA to just block objectionable contents and cyber crime was not our subject, he said adding that if any complaint registered, which was other than contents, the PTA would send it to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

FIA director general briefed the committee regarding cyber crimes, security and objectionable material posted on the social media.

National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) director general briefed the committee regarding the issues related to cyber crimes.

He told that NACTA had no power to remove or block any content from any website and could not take action against any unlawful content. NACTA only referred the matter to the PTA for further action at its end, he added.

The meeting was attended by Members National Assembly including Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, Kanwal Shauzab, Nusrat Wahid, Muhammad Hashim, Ayesh Rajab Ali, Romina Khursheed Alam, Maiza Hameed, Shamim Ara Panhwar, Mahesh Kumar Malani, Naz Baloch, Syed Mehmood Shah and senior officers of Ministry of Information Technology, FIA, NACTA, PTA, and Ministry of Law and Justice.