With Advent of modern technology,the face of traditional
crime has drastically changed. Now criminals adopt digital means to commit
different crimes.This has ushered into an era of Cyber crimes in the society.Now
law enforcement agencies are facing culprits who use Cyber space to successfully
commit an offense.In Pakistan the Federal Investigation Agency has been assigned
the task of countering Cyber crimes.it has created a special wing called
CCW(Cyber crime wing) to deal with such offenses.Initially the CCW did play a
very positive role in nabbing such culprits but with the passage of time the
typical police culture peeped into its ranks.The officers and officials posted
in CCW start turning into a mafia of their own kind.They started becoming
corrupt and inefficient. The lust for power and misuse of authority has become
the hallmark of this wing.They become so obsessed with their self projection
that many of them use social media to show of their tiny selves.Having no regard
for government rules and regulations,they openly use their official position
over social media for their personal gains.Many of them have even opened YouTube
channels, and accounts over Facebook, Instagram and twitter by showing their
official positions.one glaring example is that of an Assistant Director namely
Asif Iqbal Choudhry. The social media is filled with the personal stuff of this
officer which is meant for his self projection.AD Asif Iqbal has established a
YouTube channel with the title"Muhammad Asif Iqbal Cyber Crime wing
FIA".Similarly he is using to the name of FIA in all his other social media
platforms and videos.Without any legal permission this FIA officer is openly
using his Official position for his personal gains. When Additional Director
General FIA IhsanSadiq took notice of his illegal activities and placed him
under suspension then this Assistant Director resorted to cheap tactics.He
labelled his routine suspension as something to do with the tweet of Imanmazari
who is the daughter of Federal Minister for human Rights Dr sherinMazari.Through
his cronies he started hashtag "Justice for Asif Iqbal" and Reinstate Asif
Iqbal".But in order to pressurize DG FIA wajid Zia and ADG IhsanSadiq his
cronies started hashtag"Sack sherinmazari". He started giving impression as if
he was the only honest officer of FIA whohas been sacked for taking a feudwith
the daughter of a minister.This shows how the Cyber crime wing officers have
turned themselves into Cyber bullys for their personal gains.In recent past when
an honest FIA officer Sajjad Mustafa Bajwa while posted in Cyber crime circle
Lahore countered the illegal actions of such black sheep then they all made an
alliance against him.When he wrote to high ups regarding the wrongdoings of such
personnel then instead of taking any disciplinary action, the FIA Headquarters
transferred Mr Bajwa.This was a turning point as this mafia became so powerful
that no officer could dare to question their illegal activities.From the very
beginning the Cyber Crime wing has turned into a liability for FIA. Most of the
recruitment was done from those already working in the PISCES project of FIA.
The rest were sifarishees of big guns.People with dubious qualifications were
inducted without observing the rules.From the very beginning those with better
skills were either expelled or forced to leave. But those with dubious
qualifications were extended important portfolios. One Forensic Expert(Now
renamed as DD forensic) presented his degree from such a campus of
Alkhairuniversity which was declared illegal by Higher Education Commission. The
first batch of CCW was regularized by the famous Khursheed Shah Committee which
has mandate of only considering those cases below BPS-17. But interestingly this
Committee illegally regularized the services of CCW officers in BPS 17 and 18.
Till date no legal explanation has been extended to elaborate thisanomaly. The
second batch was recruited in 2013. But on Deputy Director Forensic hailing from
Mardan was illegally regularized with the first batch of CCW.Funny thing is that
all the batchmates if this Deputy Director are still striving for regularization
of their service. One Deputy Director hailing from Lahore was caught red handed
while changing the cell phone confiscated as case property. Despite such
criminal act the gentleman is still enjoying his service. The most strange case
is that of an officer who was recruited as Principal Investigator, a post meant
for technical investigation. This officer was so crafty that he first changed
the nomenclature of his post to Assistant Director. Then he put his career on a
fast track and within no time he grabbed the post of Additional Director in BPS
19. He was eyeing over the post of Director in BPS 20 but thanks to the leg
pulling culture of FIA,his matter was reported to high ups. Till date no legal
action has been taken against him. This author has evidence that the officers of
CCW are involved in illegally providing the logs of different Facebook accounts
of females, call data record and NADRA record of different people in lieu of
huge find of money. It is pertinent to mention that social media platforms and
other famous websites provide information only if request is made through an
official email account. The irony is that all the regular,adhoc and contract
employees of CCW have been granted official email address with no counter check
upon the users. There is no centralized monitoring system to check whether the
data is being requested for official or personal purposes. The incumbent DG FIA
wajid Zia is a very upright and honest person. Similarly the Additional DG CCW
Mr IhsanSadiq is known for his honesty and professionalism.Recently the
induction of Mr Jaffer Khan as Director Cyber Crime Islamabad is really a wise
decision. But unless and until there is a strong accountability and checks &
balance system within the ranks of Cyber crime wing, there is little hope of any
improvement. It is essential to discourage the trends of self projection and
personal aggrandizement amongst the officers and officials of Cyber Crime wing.
There should be zero tolerance for using the name and resources of CCW for
personal gains. Most importantly the professional and we'll experienced officers
of other wings of FIA should be posted in CCW to improve it's performance. If
timely steps are not taken then the future seems bleaker for CCW.