A Sport of Kings and Jokers

CommandEleven
Paper
June 2016
 A Sport of Kings and Jokers

2016, CommandEleven. All rights reserved.

For more information about receiving this, or other CommandEleven analysis

documents, please visit http://www.commandeleven.com/.

REPORT AUTHORS

A Sport of Kings and Jokers was researched, compiled and written by Khalid
Muhammad, Director General.

ABOUT COMMANDELEVEN

CommandEleven is a research organization focused on Pakistans national

security aspects and enhancing global understanding and collaboration
opportunities for the nation.

Founded in 2015, CommandEleven provides situational awareness to facilitate a

better understanding of the key dynamics that effect Pakistan from a national
security perspective, especially in relation to terrorism, insurgencies and
extremism.

CommandEleven seeks to inform and guide public policy and decision makers in
government, business and military through a rigorous program of publications,
conferences, digital medias, policy briefings and recommendations.

Visit http://commandeleven.com for more information or contact

info@commandeleven.com.
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With the passage of the Electronic Crimes bill, and its being prepared to be
enacted into law, we felt it necessary to re-publish an analysis of the bill
published on an alliance website.

We fully stand behind the analysis and believe that this is the beginning of free
speech and political discourse being silenced. Democracies, as Pakistan
pretends to be, embody the freedom to express ones opinion, to dissent against
their own government, because democracy, supposedly, is the power of the
people. That power isnt just at the voting booth, but its in the blogs, the social
media posts, the tweets, the YouTube videos that are produced highlighting
injustice and unethical acts. These are things that should be celebrated by a
truly democratic government, not silence for the embarrassment it causes them.

This will not be the case in Pakistan any longer. We, the people of this country,
who elected this government to power, will no longer be allowed to comment,
dissent or mock those in power, entertainment, media, sports, culture, and
anyone else who might be a public figure.

This is no longer our country, if we chose to stand quietly and allow this to
transpire. If we allow our rights to be taken here, as we have in the past, we will
find that we have no rights left at all. Policing in Pakistan is a joke. The judicial
system is backlogged to Judgement Day. And politics in Pakistan is a sport of
kings and jokers.

Today, the circus has left town. the analysis follows below (originally posted
here).

Looking at the new Electronic Crimes bill (included below for your review) to be
presented in the National Assembly, I see many hallmarks of the US Patriot Act, in
terms of the cyber crime, identity theft and other items that I will explain in this
article. I also see a number of things that can, and will, be used to quell dissent
among the people of Pakistan.

SOME HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Before we get started, lets all remember that while we like to point to the military
dictatorships as the source of censorship and violations of freedom of speech, it
has been the civilian governments that have blatantly taken those rights away
from the Pakistani.

In recent history, most of us will recall the row between Nawaz Sharif and the
Jang Group in 1997 when the newsprint supply was stopped to keep them from
printing stories about the familys corruption and Shahbaz Sharifs involvement in
extrajudicial killings. Our younger lot will recall the blocking of all television
channels during the emergency in 2007 by former President Pervez Musharraf.
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Very few know about Jasmeen Mansoor and Mubashir Lucman being held against
their will after an interview of Nawaz Sharif, because they refused to hand over
the recording where they had asked sensitive questions about his own corruption.

No one can forget the YouTube ban that Pakistan still has in place even though
the offensive film has been removed. Many have said that this ban is not because
of the film, but because so many people were uploading embarrassing videos of
politicians that they foolishly banned it. As if YouTube is the only way to share
embarrassing videos

We all remember Facebook being blocked because of a single page that was
launched to mock the Prophet (PBUH), where again Pakistan became the center
of the censorship debate.

Both of these incidents led to the creation of the committee inside the Pakistan
Telecommunications Authority, whose membership, selection process and
powers are unknown to the Pakistani people. This committee is responsible for
blocking any website that is deemed to be offensive to the people of Pakistan.
What the definition of offensive is has never been clarified for the populace, nor
has the criteria for a website being blocked been made public.

We remember the day last year when the Express Tribune famously ran a blank
page in place of the Carlotta Gall story trashing our military. Well forget the fact
that all of her claims were based on statements from an anti-Pakistan Karzai
government and a long list of unnamed or discredited sources that included
Ziauddin Butt, the man that was almost Chief of Army Staff on 12 October, 1999.
Yes, I have read the book. Well also forget the fact that the newspaper of record,
the New York Times, had run a story a few months prior connecting the Karzai
government with supporting the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan to punish Pakistan.

Many are unaware of the famous memo during the last PPP government issued
from PEMRA banning satire of politicians and public personalities. This memo
targeted programs like The 4 Man Show and Hum Sub Omeed Say Hai.

I cant even count the number of times that blogger.com has been blocked in
Pakistan on the orders of the government.

And no one will forget the recent blocking of wordpress.com due to national
security issues. The reason given was that there were many websites on the free
blogging platform that were projecting the mission and glorification of the Tehrik-
e-Taliban Pakistan. But Ill come back to the national security argument later in
this article.

Forgetting all of these incidents and the many more that I wont list because I
enjoy being free from handcuffs and a jail cell, Pakistan has a rich history with
censoring the media and the public opinion. This has become part of the national
identity. Its nothing new to wake up one day and find a commonly used website
blocked in Pakistan.

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NATIONAL SECURITY IMPLICATIONS

As someone who understands the greater national security argument, I do

understand that there are some websites that must be blocked because of their
content, but that doesnt mean that all websites are wrong just because the
government says so.

Taking the recent block of wordpress.com as an example, I would agree that there
are hundreds, if not thousands, of webpages on the blogging platform that would
be considered offensive, but to completely block the entire platform reeks of
something more sinister than protecting the nation from the TTP message.

I am also loathed to say that even if you block a platform, it doesnt mean that you
have stopped their message. As per the 20 point National Action Plan, all
supporters and spokespeople of terrorist and extremist organizations are not
supposed to be shown in the media, but we all know that to be untrue. As a
matter of fact, the National Action Plan states that the government will take
serious action against these groups, but thus far, it is only the TTP that is having
any action taken against them. The other gazetted extremist and terrorist groups
are still roaming free and, in some cases, getting police protection at state
expense.

I am also saddened that the Government of Pakistan has not provided Pakistanis
with the ability to report these same offensive profiles on Facebook and twitter to
them for blocking. Many of us who have reported these groups, and individuals,
pages to the authorities at Facebook have gotten negative responses back. This
may be due to the fact that no one at Facebook knows that these are banned
organizations in Pakistan or that they just dont understand any of the content on
these pages because it is in Urdu. Yes, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Twitter, on the other hand, is very quick to remove profiles that are rooted in
terrorist or extremist ideologies. This is something that I would have expected to
see in this bill, but is not there.

ANALYSIS OF THE PREVENTION OF ELECTRONIC CRIMES ACT 2015

As a whole, the bill itself seems to be a continuation of the Pakistan Protection

Ordinance, which was passed last year. The Pakistan Protection Ordinance, or the
Patriot Act Plus as I call it, gave the government the ability to arrest and detain
anyone that it considered anti-state, gave broad ranging powers to the military
and law enforcement agencies for investigation, questioning and prosecution and
attempted to strengthen the counter-terrorism effort in the country. I say
attempted because once the bill was passed, it was filed in a draw at the National
Assembly and never implemented. That bill could have prevented the Army Public
School attack and the requirement for the 21st Amendment.

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Chapter 1 of the bill focuses on the offensives and punishments, so lets start
there.

There are many sections of the chapter that are open for interpretation because
they have not been clearly defined. There is one phrase that is repeated through
out the document malicious intent which is not defined, which concerns me a
great deal. What I consider to be malicious intent and what the Government of
Pakistan considers to be malicious intent could be the difference between the
moon and the ground, so I am uncomfortable with the use of a word that is not
clearly defined in the bill itself.

The bill sets forth the 20 crimes that range from cyber hacking and cyber
terrorism to electronic fraud and identity theft, but there are a few that are
concerning in terms of their language in the bill.

Chapter 1, point 16 creates the crime of offence against dignity of natural

person. Heres how the bill defines it:

Whoever, with malicious intent, knowingly and publicly exhibits, displays,

transmits any electronic communication that:
harms the reputation of a natural person
threatens any sexual acts against a natural person
superimposes a photograph of the face of a natural person over any sexually
explicit images
distorts the face of a natural person
or includes a photograph or a video of a natural person in sexually explicit
conduct,

without the express or implied consent of the person in question, intending that
such electronic communication cause that person injury or threatens injury to
his or her reputation, his or her existing state of privacy or puts him or her in fear
for him or her safety shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may
extend to one year or with fine which may extend to one million rupees or with
both.

Thus, no satire of the any person in Pakistan. So all the lovely memes that we like
to share of our politicians crime. All the lovely memes that we like to share of
Lollywood and TV serials crime.

Chapter 1, point 19 creates the crime of spamming. Heres how the bill defines it:

(1) Whoever transmits harmful, fraudulent, misleading, illegal or unsolicited

intelligence to any person without the express permission of the recipient, or
causes any information system to show any such intelligence commits the
offence of spamming.

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(2) Whoever commits the offence of spamming as described in sub-section (1)

shall be punished with fine not exceeding fifty thousand rupees if he commits
this offence of spamming for the first time and for every subsequent
commission of offence of spamming he shall be punished with imprisonment for
a term which may extend to three months or with fine which may extend to one
million rupees or with both.

The bill defines intelligence as any speech, sound, data, signal, writing, image
or video.

So does that mean that the spam messages I get from companies on my mobile
and email are now a crime? Since the definition of intelligence is so broad, it could
apply to anything from the emails to Candy Crush invites or group surveys.

Chapter 1, point 20 creates the crime of spoofing. Heres how the bill defines it:

(1) Whoever dishonestly, establishes a website or sends any intelligence with a

counterfeit source intended to be believed by the recipient or visitor of the
website, to be an authentic source commits spoofing.
(2) Whoever commits spoofing shall be punished with imprisonment for a term
which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to five hundred
thousand rupees or with both.

Does this mean that bloggers are going to be harassed by the government for
reporting a story that isnt public knowledge yet? Will journalists be harassed into
releasing names of sources to prove authenticity of the source?

Will this also be used against journalists and bloggers who practice yellow
journalism?

POWERS OF THE INVESTIGATIVE AGENCY

Forgetting the fact that we have numerous investigative agencies in Pakistan, we

will now have one more just to investigate crimes related to this bill. Most
countries establish a division for cyber crimes under existing federal and
provincial agencies, much like the FBIs cyber crimes division, but in Pakistan, we
are creating a new investigative agency.

If past history is any indication, the agency will be headed by a political appointee
that has no understanding of technology other than how to turn on a computer
and log into their email. This will lead to the misuse of this law on a grand scale, so
terrorists and extremists will continue to pass their information to the general
public and people like you and me will be in jail for speaking against the
government of the day.

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The investigative agency will also have access to the past 90 days of your history,
phone calls, text messages, etc through the service provider (mobile and/or
internet provider). Now, for someone like me, who write fictional novels about
spies and terrorist activities, that kind of data would put me behind bars for a long
time. Especially since I am pro-Army, which is a no-no in Pakistans democratic
establishment.

I do wonder, however, if the warrant application for the search, seizure and
disclosure of this data will be similar to the US FISA courts, where the government
only needs to make a tacit argument to get the warrant issued or if the courts will
require a significant amount of evidence before they allow an investigation to
proceed to arrest and prosecution. That point could be the difference between
how many people are penalized for their opinion and how many are penalized for
speaking against the governments decisions and policies.

OVERALL ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

I have listed the points of concern for me, as a writer, political analyst and
commentator on current affairs. Looking at the base of the legislation, I will spend
a great deal of time in the Pakistani jails and spend a great deal of money in fines
to the state.

There are many things within this legislation that need to be further explained in
greater detail before it is presented before the National Assembly and the Senate
for a vote. It also needs to have technology specialist brought in to make the
legislation more proactive against crimes that are happening in other countries
and have the potential to start in Pakistan. We have some very talented
technology experts in the general public, but the government always choses to
use their own blue-eyed boys when it comes time to pass legislation like this. If
nothing else, put this to PASHA for review and comment before moving forward
with the vote.

I also find a great deal of problems with the language in the legislation. It is very
broad and I believe it is done intentionally so that the government can use varying
interpretations to punish those it sees as anti-government or anti-state, rather
than taking on the true anti-state elements in the country. As I said in my opening,
there is a great deal of confidentiality in the way the government operates when it
comes to the rights of the citizens. While the media is quick to jump on the
military for the same confidentiality, they are eerily silent on the government
operating the same way. The military requires confidentiality to achieve successes
in its objectives, the government requires transparency to gain the support and
compliance of the people.

I also dont like the fact that an electronic crimes bill makes no mention of
financial crimes at all. The use of online payment gateways, credit cards online
and other methods are not discussed or planned for within this legislation at all.
Yes, I am sure that the multiple references to electronic fraud, electronic forgery
and other broad terminology can be used for this purpose, but electronic crimes
typically include the financial element otherwise they are toothless in nature and
application.

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As we have seen in recent years, as more details of the US Patriot Act emerge,
more American and global citizens are taking offense to the powers given to the
US government, spy agencies and military to monitor and track their activities.
This legislation, if properly discussed with technology and legal experts, will find
the same offense among the general populace.

This is nothing more than a coded attempt to give the government the power to
silence dissent. Many of the clauses included in this legislation are part of other
legislative acts, but will be superseded by this legislation, rather than enhanced in
the original legislation. It would make a great deal more sense to me as Pakistan
for the relevant clauses of the PTA Act, for example, to be enhanced, rather than
this legislation be enacted. I cite the PTA Act because that is the broad ranging
legislation that covers the powers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
who, at the end of the day, will be the ones dealing with the bulk of the
implementation of this new legislation.

Am I against an Electronic Crimes legislation? Not at all.

What I am against is using the cover of electronic crimes to silence the people of
Pakistan who, in a true democratic dispensation, have the right to voice their
opinions without fear of punishment or prosecution. I am also fearful that this
new legislation will do nothing to stop cyber terrorism, violence against minorities
and others, and electronic crimes.

All downloads are available from the original article (here)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As Director General of CommandEleven, Khalid Muhammad takes over 26 years of
international experience to guide and drive his team to deliver accurate, reliable
and actionable analysis for private organizations, institutions, government policy
and media outlets. He provides tactical and comprehensive analysis into terrorist
and extremist groups operating in the Indian sub-continent and Middle East,
including recruitment, financing, operations and warfare strategies. His experience
and vision guide the growth and expansion of CommandEleven into new
opportunities.

ABOUT COMMANDELEVEN
CommandEleven is a research organization focused on Pakistans national
security aspects and enhancing global understanding and collaboration
opportunities for the nation.
Founded in 2015, CommandEleven provides situational awareness to facilitate a
better understanding of the key dynamics that effect Pakistan from a national
security perspective, especially in relation to terrorism, insurgencies and
extremism.
CommandEleven seeks to inform and guide public policy and decision makers in
government, business and military through a rigorous program of publications,
conferences, digital medias, policy briefings and recommendations.

10
A CommandEleven Paper

Visit http://commandeleven.com for more information or contact

info@commandeleven.com.

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