LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s National Response Centre for Cyber Crime (NR3C) – previously known as cyber wing – has failed to clear backlog of almost 6,000 cases registered with the authority in the last six months from Lahore district alone, Almas Ali Jovindah, president Cyber Legal Arm (a law firm) told Daily Times on Saturday. Almas claimed that the authority had deputed only seven personnel in the NR3C to clear pending cases registered with the FIA’s Complaint Cell. It may be mentioned that the cyber crime bill titled ‘The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016’ was approved by parliament in August last year. The bill envisages a 14-year imprisonment and Rs 5 million fine for cyber terrorism, seven-year imprisonment for campaigning against innocent people on the Internet, spreading hate material on the basis of ethnicity, religion and sect or taking part in child pornography. Almas said that the FIA established the cyber wing in early 90s, which was made active after approval of The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016′, and only seven FIA officials, who were previously working for other wings of the authority, were deputed in the NR3C. He said that lack of staff, however, was not the only reason for pending cases, as the officials are also not trained to deal with the cases. He said that “it was taking the FIA officials more than six months to conduct forensic analysis of cyber crime cases, which could be done in 10 to 15 minutes”. “Just because some clauses of the bill say that the FIA can extend its investigation and analysis up to six months, the FIA officials has developed a niche to delay forensic analysis of the cases,” said Almas, and added that the victims of cyber crimes were losing interest in pursuing the cases by dint of “lethargic attitude of the officials”. Almas quoted cyber crime victims as saying that they did not want to continue proceedings of their cases, as it was taking the authority more than six months to send notices to them. “This is a golden opportunity for the FIA and the government to set up new executive complaint centres for victims of cyber crimes,” he said, adding that the government should establish a new force, hire young and fresh team just like it did in highway police, to complete investigation in shortest time period. Almas went on to say that the Cyber Legal Arm was the only dedicated firm in Pakistan dealing with hundreds of clients – most of them unsatisfied and disappointed with the authority’s performance. “Our firm is ready to support the cyber wing. Besides we can also train the FIA officials as well as the judicial officials as per ‘The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill, 2016’ requirement,” he added. “The bill also calls for establishing a special court to deal with cyber laws but I think court officials should also be trained to perform forensic analysis and other allied tasks, , which is a major requirement of the bill,” he concluded.