SilencedPECA Section 24: Cyber stalking
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016 (as amended in 2025)
What this section covers
Official heading: Cyber stalking
Using the internet, email or other electronic means to follow, repeatedly contact, monitor, watch or spy on a person with intent to coerce, intimidate or harass them.
Part of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016 (as amended in 2025). Pakistan's cybercrime law, passed in 2016. It makes offences of things done through phones, computers and the internet, including online defamation (section 20), glorifying terrorism (section 9), cyber terrorism (section 10) and, since 2025, spreading 'false or fake' information (section 26-A). It also lets the authorities order online content removed or blocked (section 37).
A plain-language explanation, not legal advice. The official text always takes precedence.
Official text
The official consolidated text, published by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Pakistan Code:
Recent incidents citing this law
The following verified cases are currently mapped on Silenced under this law.
8 verified incidents whose report cites Section 24. Citations are read automatically from news reports and can be incomplete; inclusion does not verify the allegation.
-
Court dismisses plea against remand of anchor Iqrarul Hassan
At the outset of the hearing, defence counsel Barrister Mian Ali Ashfaq submitted that his client had been arrested at his house in Lahore against a case registered on the basis of a source report that he allegedly criticised the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a video uploaded to… During the proceedings, Mr Hassan’s wife Farah took the witness box and informed the court about her husband’s arrest claiming that the investigating officer was not present at the time of the arrest.
-
فیصل آباد: ’شادی سے انکار‘ کی پاداش میں قابل اعتراض اور تضحیک آمیز ویڈیوز وائرل ہونے کے برسوں بعد خدیجہ کو انصاف مل گیا
ماخذ کے مطابق آن لائن سرگرمی سے منسلک اغوا کی اطلاع: «سوشل میڈیا پر وائرل ہونے والی ویڈیو میں ایک ڈری سہمی لڑکی سے کچھ لوگ زبردستی جوتے چٹواتے نظر آئے تھے۔»
-
اسلام آباد، خاتون کو نازیبا تصاویر کے ذریعے بلیک میل کرنے والا ملزم گرفتار
نیشنل سائبر کرائم انویسٹی گیشن ایجنسی (این سی سی آئی اے) اسلام آباد نے خاتون کے سوشل میڈیا اکاؤنٹس تک رسائی کرکے ڈیٹا چوری کرنے اور پھر نازیبا تصاویر کے ذریعے بلیک میل کرنے میں ملوث ملزم کو گرفتار کرکے مقدمہ درج کرلیا۔ خاتون کی شکایت پر نیشنل سائبر کرائم انوسٹی گیشن ایجنسی نے انکوائری کی تو الزامات درست معلوم ہوئے، جس پر انوسٹی گیشن آفیسر سب انسپکٹر مصباح بتول کی سربراہی میں این سی سی آئی اے کی ٹیم نے ملزم کو چھاپہ مار کر گرفتار کرلیا۔
-
Karachi man sentenced to six years in prison for creating fake Facebook accounts to blackmail woman
Source reports a criminal case (FIR) linked to online activity: "KARACHI: A judicial magistrate has sentenced a man to a total of six years in prison for creating fake Facebook accounts in his friend’s name and misusing them to share her inappropriate photographs in an attempt to blackmail her after she turned down his proposal for engagement."
-
خاتون کی کردار کشی اور جعلی خبریں چلانے والا ملزم گرفتار، جرم کا بھی اعتراف
نیشنل سائبرکرائم انویسٹی گیشن ایجنسی (این سی سی آئی اے) سکھر نے کردار کشی اورمن گھڑت خبریں پھیلانے میں ملوث ملزمان کوگرفتارکرلیا۔ متاثرہ نے سوشل میڈیا پر کردار کشی اور جعلی خبروں کے ذریعے بدنامی کی شکایت درج کرائی تھی جس میں کہا گیا تھا کہ راجہ پرویز، نیک محمد اور دیدار علی اس عمل میں ملوث تھےْ انکوائری کے دوران متعدد نوٹسز جاری کئے گئے لیکن تینوں افراد پیش نہ ہوئے جس کے بعد عدالتی حکم پر سرچ اینڈ سیژر وارنٹ حاصل کیا گیا جس کے تحت ملزم نیک محمد…
-
Journalists, vloggers among 150 booked under Peca
The FIA Cybercrime Wing has so far arrested over 20 social media activists across the country for controversial posts about alleged deaths during the crackdown. The arrests come after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the formation of a joint task force to track down those responsible for spreading what officials called “fake news” about the protest deaths.
-
Project Peca III: What goes around, comes around
The year 2020 began on the heels of sedition cases against the Student Solidarity March organisers in December 2019 and PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen’s arrest in January, followed by the arrests of MNAs Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir as well as those of several AWP leaders. In the case of Umair Solangi, Executive Editor of AwamiKhabarnama.com , he tweeted that he was illegally detained by the FIA who picked him up at 9pm on October 21, 2020, releasing him the next day in the early hours at around 4am.
-
Project Peca I: How to silence a nation
The Pakistani state has a long history of using legal and illegal measures [enforced disappearances, for instance] to ensure everyone toes the line and protect the status quo. Swati is also not the first politician to be arrested for making “remarks against institutions” on social media.