The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Wednesday instructed to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit proposals at its next meeting to improve its cyber wing’s performance after learning that cybercrime has increased by 83% over the past three years.

The panel that met here, with Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali in the chair expressed deep worry about the negative propaganda and campaigning being conducted against journalists, politicians and institutions via social media as well as abuse of elected representatives and their families.

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The committee stressed building the capacity of the staff employed by the FIA cybercrime division, and recommended to the Federal government that it begin immediately to nominate permanent, experienced, and competent officers to the cybercrime wing and provide the necessary resources.

In the course of the meeting the MNA Javeria Zafar expressed serious concern regarding the system that is used for cybercrime. She claimed that criminals are branded by name, intimidated, and later released.

An FIA official stated “Child pornography can be punished with life-long imprisonment, and Blasphemy cases are punished with death.”