ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee on Friday decided to invite the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to provide better insight into child pornography networks that first surfaced after the Kasur incident.

Reported in 2015, the Kasur case related to the filming and raping of 280 boys under the age of 14.

“We want to know how this network operated and what the government has done to prevent it from operating again,” said Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecommunication chairperson PPP Senator Robina Khalid.

The standing committee also decided to call the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the IT and law ministries and Nadra to the next meeting to discuss application of the cyber crime law and how effective it has been in countering cyber terrorism and cyber crime.

The committee met for the first time since its formation under its new chairperson. The meeting was called for a briefing by the IT ministry on its functions.

The meeting was informed that IT exports are estimated at $3.3 billion. Member telecom, Ministry of IT, Mudassar Hussain told the committee that State Bank figures on IT exports are $660 million. He said IT remittances had grown by 150pc from 2012-13 to 2017-18.

However, Robina Khalid was critical of the poor skill development of IT workers and graduates in the industry. PPP Senator Rehman Malik asked why Pakistan’s IT industry was lagging compared to India.

Member IT from the ministry, Syed Raza Shah said that India had started promoting its IT industry since the early 1990s and that Pakistan had only realised its potential a few years ago.

“Unlike India, whose prime minister owns and acknowledges the IT industry, the industry in Pakistan is still missing that ownership from the top level,” said Syed Raza Shah, adding that there are more engineering colleges in Bangalore than any other city in the world.

The committee was told that the number of broadband users had increased from three million in 2012-13 to more than 57 million.

According to Mr Hussain, the telecom sector has contributed more than $4.42 billion to the national exchequer between 2014 and 2017. The sale of 3G and 4G licences alone has fetched the government $1.4 billion.

The committee was informed than 91,500 kilometres of fibre optic cable has been laid from the north to the south, including 820km between Rawalpindi and Khunjerab under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2018