Data Protection in Pakistan: Need for a Comprehensive Legal Framework

Abstract

Digital technologies, e-commerce, e-governance, biometric identification systems, and data-driven decision-making have grown exponentially and changed the process of collecting, processing, storing, and sharing personal data in Pakistan. There is a growing dependence on personal data by both the public authorities and the private companies in service delivery, security, financial transaction and oversight of these entities. Although this datafication of society occurs at a rate, Pakistan still does not have an extensive and enforceable legal framework of data protection, which would allow protecting the privacy of individuals, providing accountability, and controlling the data practices of the state and non-state actors. This article discusses why a general data protection regime is necessary in Pakistan by looking into the current rules of the law, practices of institutions and the risks that are coming on board in face of unregulated processing of data. It claims that the existing safeguards are piecemeal, industry-oriented, and mostly insufficient to tackle modern issues like mass data gathering, internet monitoring, intercontinental data flows and the abuse of private data. The lack of a comprehensive law on data protection undermines the constitutional privacy protection, negative impacts on the trust of people in digital systems, and puts individuals at a significant risk, such as identity theft, profiling, and unauthorized surveillance. Using the constitutional provisions and the global standards of data protection, this article will argue that Pakistan is in dire need of an overhaul data protection framework, clearly defining the rights, duties, enforcement, and control frameworks. It concludes that in the absence of such a framework, the digitalization of Pakistan can become a system of systemic privacy infringement and a threat to democratic governance in the digital era.