IslamabadPakistan jailed journalist Gharida Farooqi’s harasser.
Pakistan’s National Cybercrime Investigation Agency arrested 1 person in Chiniot after AI-generated videos of Farooqi circulated during April ceasefire coverage.
Further arrests are expected; the same law is routinely deployed against Pakistani journalists.
Sources: Global Voices
WHAT PECA IS
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, passed in 2016, criminalizes a broad sweep of online conduct — defamation, 'cyberstalking,' content against the 'glory of Islam,' and 'anti-state' speech. Penalties run to seven years and fines in the millions of rupees. The law was sold as protection for women online; in practice it is the primary tool for prosecuting journalists.
THE DUAL-USE PROBLEM
Laws written to protect women from image-based abuse and laws written to silence dissent share the same statutory architecture: vague intent standards, broad takedown powers, and pretrial detention. Pakistan's case is the textbook version — the same FIA cybercrime wing that arrests Farooqi's harasser also raids journalists at dawn for tweets criticizing the army.
THE PRESS FREEDOM CONTEXT
Pakistan ranks near the bottom of global press freedom indices and sits among the world's worst countries for journalist safety — assassinations, abductions, and 'enforced disappearances' of reporters are recurring. The state rarely prosecutes attackers; it routinely prosecutes the attacked.
AI-GENERATED HARASSMENT
Deepfake intimate imagery has industrialized a tactic that previously required a leaked photograph. The marginal cost of fabricating a video is now near zero, while the legal and reputational damage to the target is unchanged. Women in public roles — journalists, politicians, activists — are disproportionately targeted because their faces are abundant online.
THE FIA CYBERCRIME WING
The Federal Investigation Agency runs the cybercrime cells that enforce PECA. Originally a counter-terrorism and anti-trafficking outfit, its remit expanded with each PECA amendment. In 2025 the function was rebranded as the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency, but the personnel, powers, and political supervision are unchanged.
WHO THE LAW IS USED ON
Independent monitoring by Pakistani press groups consistently finds the heaviest PECA caseload falls on three categories: journalists covering the military or judiciary, women publicly criticizing powerful men, and political opposition activists. The Farooqi case is unusual because the defendant is the harasser — not the journalist.