Justice in Pakistan has increasingly begun not with a witness statement but with screenshots. A WhatsApp conversation or a viral video clip can now trigger investigations and mobilise public outrage while shaping the trajectory of trials. Crimes which used to take place behind closed doors now occur across digital platforms, leaving behind trails of metadata and images for the courts to interpret.
Yet, Pakistan’s evidentiary framework was built for paper documents, signatures and oral testimonies; are its laws and courts fully equipped for the evidentiary realities of the digital age?
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), Pakistan's main cybercrime law, was passed in order to specifically address these issues. Cyberstalking, identity theft, cyber harassment, and privacy violations are among those online harms that are illegal under the law.
While Section 22 deals with intimate images shared without consent, Sections 21 and 24 of the Act punish the dissemination of private images and ongoing online harassment. The Federal Investigation Agency's Cyber Crime Wing, which has created specialised investigative units to handle digital evidence and online complaints, is primarily responsible for enforcing these offences.
Pakistan's legal system has proven to be capable of dealing with cybercrimes in a number of instances. Using digital forensic evidence taken from online accounts and devices, a cybercrime court in Karachi sentenced a man to six years in prison for creating fictitious social media accounts to share a woman's private photos after she rejected his marriage proposal.
More alarmingly, the emergence of sextortion networks has also been revealed by investigations; in Sukkur, suspects were detained by the Federal Investigation Agency for threatening to release compromising videos of a woman unless she paid a ransom of one million rupees, demonstrating how coercive tactics have changed from physical intimidation to digital blackmail.
Furthermore, cases involving minors, where perpetrators use private messaging apps and social media platforms to groom and coerce young victims before threatening to spread explicit images, are perhaps the most concerning and widely unreported ones, spreading across platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
In the past, evidence was delivered in sealed envelopes, but today it arrives as a screenshot, a leaked image or a voice note
In a similar case, investigators detained suspects who were accused of sharing explicit material of a minor through fictitious online accounts while also blackmailing the victim.
Accountability in Pakistan has been profoundly altered by social media, with online campaigns and viral content increasingly influencing the course of criminal investigations.
The Usman Mirza case, in which a video of a violent assault went viral online and sparked national outrage under the hashtag #JusticeForCouple, is a frequently cited example.
Law enforcement officials responded quickly to the ensuing public pressure, which resulted in convictions in 2022, coupled with social awareness through the drama of a similar nature, Aik or Pakeezah, which adds to breaking stigma and demanding justice.
In a similar vein, Noor Mukadam's murder sparked the #JusticeForNoor digital campaign, which increased calls for accountability and brought ongoing attention to the case's investigation and prosecution.
Such movements highlight deeper legal issues even as they show how digital platforms can mobilise public oversight and speed up institutional response.
Screenshots, chat histories, voice notes, and viral videos are examples of online evidence that courts are using more and more, but they are all prone to manipulation.
It is possible to fabricate entire conversations, change timestamps, and modify images.
Complicating matters further is the development of deepfake and artificial intelligence technology, which makes it possible to produce realistic-looking but completely fake videos of public figures and government officials to defame or of private individuals to fuel feuds and revenge.
Courts lack specific procedures for confirming such evidence under the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, a framework created long before the digital era. This poses risks to both victims seeking justice and investigators dealing with potentially manipulated digital records.
Pakistan has made sufficient institutional advancements. With thousands of complaints pertaining to online exploitation, identity theft, and cyber harassment, the Federal Investigation Agency's cybercrime division has increased its investigative and digital forensic capabilities.
However, legal reform is still lagging behind technological advancement with the emergence of globalised crimes and online platforms, leaving courts to deal with increasingly complex evidence without adequate regulatory tools, outpacing legal reform.
If the justice system in Pakistan is to evolve with the digital age, several changes must be taken into consideration.
First, the justice system must lay down guidelines for the authentication of digital evidence. This will ensure that the metadata of the screenshot or the source device is verified before it is presented as evidence.
Next, Pakistan must invest in digital forensic facilities to ensure that the prosecution has the required expertise to deal with digital crimes.
Finally, Pakistan must address the issue of the intentional dissemination of artificial intelligence-based deepfake material and the use of audio leaks made through artificial intelligence to spark controversy. This is particularly relevant in cases of defamation, harassment, and extortion.
Fourth, Pakistan can strengthen its existing regime for the protection of children online by establishing measures to detect and act against grooming and coercion of children online, as well as making age monitoring and activity tracking mandatory for social media applications.
Further, specialised courts for cybercrimes can also be established to ensure that digital crimes are dealt with consistently.
There has been an upsurge like crimes committed over the last decade. Reputations are ruined, identities are forged, and children are exploited, all without the perpetrators ever leaving their screens.
There have been significant efforts made by the legislature through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, as well as the investigations carried out by the Federal Investigation Agency.
However, as the face of artificial intelligence continues to alter the face of crimes, the reliability of the justice system will depend on how well the laws are adapted or new ones introduced to distinguish between the truth and the lies.
In the past, evidence was delivered in sealed envelopes, but today it arrives as a screenshot, a leaked image or a voice note.