ISLAMABAD: A bill seeking establishment of a 'National Cyber Security Council (NCSC)’ is on the first day’s agenda of the Senate session beginning on Monday (tomorrow).

The NCSC Bill 2014, submitted by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed of PML-Q, suggests formation of a 30-member council to formulate a national cyber security policy and evolve coordination among various government organisations and departments working on the issue.

According to the bill, the council will comprise members from public and private sectors and federal secretaries of defence, interior, planning, information technology and communications will be its ex-officio members.

Members of the council, to be constituted for two years, will include director general of the Federal Investigation Agency, chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority and representatives of other agencies concerned.

The council will recommend measures to counter emerging cyber security threats to the country and facilitate communication between the government and private sectors.

Talking to Dawn, Senator Hussain said last year’s disclosures about America’s secret surveillance of electronic communications across the world demanded that Pakistan should take measures to check online spying.

Mr Hussain said he had prepared the draft of the private member bill after consultation with stakeholders who believed that the country was facing a “new kind of non-military security threats”.

Opinion

Editorial

Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...