IHC Orders PTA, Pemra and NCCIA to Report on Online Harassment Enforcement

Photo: The News / APP/File

The Islamabad High Court has ordered the federal government and the country's telecom, media and cybercrime regulators to file comprehensive reports on how laws against online harassment, blackmail and the unauthorised sharing of private material are actually being enforced.

Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir issued the interim order in a petition filed by Dr Raana Ahsan. The court said the case raises substantial questions of public importance, online safety, the misuse of electronic, digital and broadcast media, and whether the regulators meant to protect citizens are doing their job.

Main News Report

The News reports that the court directed the federal government, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to submit reports on the implementation of laws aimed at preventing online harassment, blackmail and unauthorised dissemination of private content, and on the redressal of complaints about the misuse of electronic and digital media.

The reports must cover online safety, the removal of unlawful content, the protection of children and other vulnerable users, the prevention of harassment and blackmail, and how complaints are handled. The PTA was told specifically to explain the practical and legal difficulties it faces in enforcing its directions, why it has not invoked coercive provisions against non-compliant platforms, and why registration requirements for social media companies have not been effectively implemented.

Dawn's report of the same order notes the court also directed the interior secretary to convene a coordination meeting of the relevant institutions, citing public concerns over online safety and enforcement of laws protecting citizens against online harm.

Background Context

Pakistan's online-safety framework rests on two laws: the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act, 1996, and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016. PECA provides for a Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority, with functions covering online safety, protection of users' rights, regulation and enlistment of platforms, and removal or blocking of unlawful content, along with binding directions to platforms and a complaints mechanism.

In practice, the PTA told the court, its role has been limited to approaching platforms for content removal or taking technical measures against their services, and operators frequently decline requests, citing their own community guidelines. The same regulator is also at the centre of Pakistan's wider telecom rule-making, including the near-final satellite internet rules that would open the door to Starlink-style services. After rules notified in October 2021, social media companies were asked to meet registration requirements and appoint local compliance and grievance officers. No affirmative response has been received to date, the PTA report said.

The court questioned whether existing statutory powers are being effectively exercised, and called for effective complaint handling. It also directed each respondent to identify legislative, administrative, technical or institutional impediments to enforcement and the steps taken or proposed to address them, supported by notifications, directions and correspondence.

Reactions and Statements

The most striking part of the order is the numbers. The PTA's own report, placed before the court, shows how unevenly platforms comply with blocking requests:

• X (formerly Twitter): 48.42% compliance, the lowest of any major platform
• Facebook: 78.57%
• Instagram: 79.52%
• YouTube: 87.34%
• TikTok: 88.68%, the highest

Compliance also varies sharply by category of content. Requests concerning national security and defence were complied with 59.01% of the time, terrorism-related content 79.51%, contempt of court 76.28%, content against the glory of Islam 76.54%, and sectarian or hate speech 67.43%. At the two extremes: only 40.38% of defamation or impersonation requests were complied with, while 98.91% of requests concerning decency and morality were.

The court observed that the figures required a considered explanation about the effectiveness of existing mechanisms and the measures available to ensure compliance with lawful directions. The respondents must now explain the reasons for the low and varying rates, the follow-up action taken in cases of non-compliance, and the measures proposed to improve enforcement.

Why This News Matters

Put simply: if someone in Pakistan has private pictures shared without consent, faces blackmail online, or is impersonated on a platform, this order is about whether the complaint actually goes anywhere. Right now, the PTA's own figures say the answer depends heavily on which platform is involved, a complaint on TikTok is far more likely to lead to removal than the same complaint on X, and on what kind of content it is.

The order also puts the regulators on a deadline. The interior secretary must convene a meeting of the Ministry of Information Technology, Pemra, the PTA, the NCCIA and other departments, attended by officers authorised to propose practical measures, and a joint report with an implementation timeline must go back to the court. The matter is fixed for further hearing on 23 November 2026.

For Pakistan's tech sector, the case is a test of the PECA framework itself: whether the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority and the tribunal and council mechanisms in the law will be made to work, or whether enforcement stays where it is, requests that platforms can, and often do, decline. That matters beyond content moderation, because Pakistan is simultaneously trying to grow its digital economy, with a target of $5.5 billion in IT exports this fiscal year, and regulators across the region are wrestling with the same platform-power question, India is even facing calls to ban Starlink over national security concerns.

Future Developments

Watch for the joint report and the 23 November hearing. The reports will show whether the regulators commit to concrete steps, registration of platforms, local grievance officers, timelines for complaint handling, or return with the same constraints they have cited before. Any move toward coercive action against a non-compliant platform would be a first, and a signal to every other operator.

PakInsight Hub will follow the reports as they are filed and the court's next hearing.

Sources

• The News, IHC orders enforcement of laws against online harassment, blackmail
• Dawn, IHC seeks report on action against cybercrime
• ARY News, IHC directs PTA, PEMRA, NCCIA to enforce laws against online harassment

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