Fact-check: Police cannot register FIRs under amended PECA

The Punjab Police have claimed that they have the legal authority to register and investigate cybercrime cases under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), even after the law was amended in January.

But experts, a government official and a court order confirm that under the amended law, police no longer have the authority to even register a first information report (FIR) under PECA.

Claim

On April 22, Lahore police registered a whopping 23 FIRs against users of Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and WhatsApp, accusing them of spreading "hate speech" and "defaming" the army, a senior military officer, and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

These FIRs were filed under Sections 11 and 20 of PECA.

Details of the cases can be found here.

When contacted by Geo Fact Check, the Punjab police confirmed the 23 FIRs and claimed that both the police and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had the authority to register and investigate cybercrime cases, even after PECA was amended.

It must be noted that PECA was first passed in 2016. In January of this year, it underwent extensive amendments by the federal government.

One of the key amendments was that the law took away investigation of cyber-related offences from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and handed them over exclusively to a new body, known as the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

\Yet, the Punjab police pointed to Section 50A of the amended law, which states that until the new cybercrime body, the NCCIA, is fully functional the "investigation agency existing before the" amendment shall continue to perform their functions".

Thus, the police insist that till "the complete functioning of NCCIA, the police and FIA are under obligation to register and investigate cases under PECA 2016, in the light of Section 50A of the Act."

Fact

This interpretation has been rejected by a senior NCCIA official, three experts and a court order. They all say that after amendments the police no longer have jurisdiction under PECA.

The federal government formally set up the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on April 4 and appointed its director general. Both notifications are available with Geo Fact Check.

Yet, even after NCCIA was established, on April 22, the Lahore police registered 23 FIRs under PECA.

Mahmood ul Hassan, deputy director of NCCIA in Islamabad, told Geo Fact Check over the phone: "The police do not have the power to register FIRs anymore. Section 30 of the PECA amendment removed their authority and gave it to the NCCIA."

Farieha Aziz, a digital rights expert, explained that when PECA was passed in 2016, the FIA was designated as the sole investigating agency under Section 29 of the law.

"The police was brought in through the 2023 amendments to Section 30 of PECA but they were never designated as the investigation agency under Section 29," she explains, "The police were only given powers to register FIRs. They still had to refer the cases for investigation to the FIA. But the 2025 amendments [to PECA] remove the police's role completely."

Aziz added that as of now any FIRs registered by police after the amendments have no legal basis.

This was corroborated by Supreme Court lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed, who added that Section 50A of the law, post amendments, only preserved the FIA’s investigative powers till the NCCIA was formed. The law makes no mention of preserving the police’s earlier role, therefore allowing them to register FIRs.

"So it can be argued that since they [police] are not specifically mentioned in Section 50A, even their power to register FIRs is also automatically gone," he added.

Lahore-based lawyer Asad Jamal also questioned the Punjab police's legal basis for continuing to register PECA cases.

"My understanding is that only NCCIA is competent to assume jurisdiction for offences under the amended PECA," he explains. "Police and [now] FIA are barred to assume jurisdiction under PECA."

This fact was also reaffirmed in a recent court order.

Last month, a police officer in Karachi registered a case under PECA against a Facebook user for allegedly posting "offensive" comments about the president of Pakistan.

In an order dated April 30, Civil Judge Mazhar Ali of Malir, Karachi, ruled that the police were not authorized to investigate the case under PECA.

"The local police are not competent to investigate the instant case as per Section 29 of the PECA, which only empowers the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency," the judge wrote. The case was later dismissed on multiple grounds.

Verdict: The police no longer have the legal authority to register cases under PECA. That power now lies solely with the NCCIA. FIRs filed by the police under PECA after the amendments are without jurisdiction.

Follow us on @GeoFactCheck on X (Twitter) and @geo_factcheck on Instagram. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]