Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, unauthorized access and interference offences
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, ss. 3, 5 and 6 (Act No. XL of 2016)
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not access an information system or data in Pakistan that is not available to the general public without authorization, or in violation of the terms and conditions of an authorization already granted; unauthorized access is a criminal offence under section 3 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, and a more heavily punished one under section 6 where the system is critical infrastructure.
- Do not interfere with, damage, or disrupt an information system or data in Pakistan without authorization, which section 5 of the Act separately punishes.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 3 punishes whoever, with dishonest intention, gains unauthorized access to any information system or data, with imprisonment up to three months or a fine up to Rs 50,000, or both.
"Unauthorized access" is defined in section 2 as access to an information system or data that is not available for access by the general public, without authorization or in violation of the terms and conditions of the authorization, so information the general public may access is excluded from the offence on its own terms.
Section 5 separately punishes interfering with or damaging an information system or data without authorization, with imprisonment up to two years or a fine up to Rs 500,000, or both. Section 6 punishes the same conduct as section 3 where the information system or data is critical infrastructure, with a higher tier of imprisonment up to three years or a fine up to Rs 1,000,000, or both.
The retrieved text is the version as passed by the National Assembly, which does not itself carry the President's assent date or Gazette publication date.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016
text as passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan, archived capture of the National Assembly's own document