Pakistan Cybercrime Law.
What protects you.

Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 is the primary law covering online harassment, blackmail, non-consensual imagery, and digital fraud. Many Pakistanis don't know what it covers or how to use it.

This page explains the provisions most relevant to online dating safety — what constitutes a crime, what the penalties are, and how to invoke the law's protections.

The key sections

• Section 17 — Unauthorised interception
  Recording someone's private communication without consent. Applies to screen-recording a video call without the other person's knowledge. Penalty: up to 2 years and/or fine.
• Section 20 — Offences against dignity
  Publishing, displaying, or transmitting false information intended to harm a person's reputation or privacy. Includes defamatory content, doctored images, and false claims. Penalty: up to 3 years and/or PKR 1M fine.
• Section 21 — Offences against modesty and minor
  Transmitting obscene, nude, or sexually explicit material without consent. The primary section for sextortion and revenge porn. Penalty: up to 5 years and/or PKR 10M fine. Complaints can be filed by any person, not only the victim.
• Section 24 — Cyber stalking
  Using electronic communication to follow, contact, monitor, or intimidate a person in a way that causes distress. Covers repeated unwanted contact, monitoring of online activity, and location tracking. Penalty: up to 3 years and/or PKR 1M fine. Aggravated: up to 5 years if victim is a minor or if the act causes serious harm.
• Section 25 — Spamming
  Sending unsolicited communications in bulk, including targeted harassment campaigns.
• Section 26 — Spoofing
  Creating fake accounts impersonating another person. Directly covers catfishing and fake profiles used for harassment.

How to file a complaint

• FIA Cybercrime Wing — The primary enforcement agency. Call 0800-02345 (free, 24/7) or file at complaint.fia.gov.pk. Bring evidence: screenshots, account details, transaction records if money was involved.
• Local police FIR — You can also file a First Information Report with your local police under the relevant PPC sections alongside PECA. Some cases move faster through the police route if the perpetrator is local.
• High Court petition — If you need urgent relief — an injunction stopping distribution of content, for example — a High Court petition can provide faster action than the FIA investigation process. You will need a lawyer.

What evidence you need

• Screenshots of all threatening communications (with visible timestamps and sender information)
• URLs of any content posted publicly
• Profile details of the perpetrator (username, phone number, account details)
• Bank transfer records if money was sent
• Any personal information the perpetrator used that could identify them

The FIA can often work with partial evidence. File even if you don't have everything.

Know your rights as a victim

Under PECA and related laws:

• You have the right to file a complaint without naming yourself publicly
• Your identity can be protected in proceedings if you request it
• You cannot be penalised for having shared images consensually in a relationship — the crime is in the non-consensual distribution, not in the original sharing
• You can pursue both criminal charges and civil damages simultaneously
• If the perpetrator is abroad, FIA can work with Interpol and foreign law enforcement through mutual legal assistance treaties

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