LAHORE: Acute shortage of staff in the newly-formed National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has forced Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to seek Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s help in addressing the matter.

Expressing concern at the growing number of cybercrime cases, Mr Naqvi said on Friday that the NCCIA was struggling to cope with the workload because of a “severe shortage of investigators”.

Talking to journalists at the NCCIA Lahore headquarters, he said: “Thousands of cases are being reported and some matters require decisions within days rather than weeks or months. I will raise the issue of the shortage of personnel with the prime minister.”

If an investigating officer is given 3,000 to 4,000 cases, how could they work, he asked, highlighting the pressure on the cybercrime investigation system. Transactions ranging from Rs10,000 to millions of rupees had been reported in such cases, he said.

The minister said Punjab had a population of around 140 million while the NCCIA had only 61 officers across the province. He said the government was also pursuing cooperation with other countries and maintaining daily contact with embassies to address cybercrime-related matters.

He stressed the need for a nationwide awareness campaign, particularly to protect women and girls from online blackmail. He advised people, especially young women, not to share personal photographs with others online, saying authorities had encountered cases in which victims shared their pictures and were subsequently blackmailed.

“Cases involving girls being blackmailed are among the most common complaints,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2026