THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE: LEGAL PROTECTIONS IN PAKISTAN
Abstract
As the digital era takes shape, a right to privacy has become one of the main legal concerns that have been raised, especially in such countries as Pakistan where the mechanisms of state surveillance are thriving extremely fast without relevant protection under the law. Although there is an indirect mention of privacy in the Constitution of Pakistan in Article 14, the jurisprudence of the right is undeveloped, as well as scattered and incoherently applied. The given paper examines the question of protection of privacy in Pakistan in terms of digital surveillance, data gathering, and new technologies including facial recognition, bio-technology identification, and online monitoring. It criticizes the legal basis of privacy in Pakistan, the understanding of the right by the courts and also the extent and the shortcoming of the present laws like the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, (PECA) 2016 and the National Database and Registration Authority, (NADRA) Ordinance, etc.
This paper suggests that the legal regime of Pakistan fails to provide an entire data protection law that can adequately reconcile the need of national security and the right to privacy of individuals. There are also surveillance programs like the Safe City Projects, phone tracking by security organizations, and biometric identification and the problem around unchecked state authority, the absence of a judiciary check-and-balance, and an opportunity to abuse power. This new phenomenon is discussed in terms of international law and comparative law, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union and the right to privacy as a fundamental right of Indian citizens, the decision in the Puttaswamy case by the Supreme Court of India.
In addition, the researched points out to institutional and procedural insufficiencies within the mechanism of a legal enforcement in Pakistan, such as the restricted technical ability, insufficient awareness of the population, and a lack of an independent data protection authority. Based on scholarship evidence, the paper provides the need to legislate urgently, namely, to introduce standalone privacy and data protection legislation, judicial guidelines in surveillance, regulatory capacities with investigatory and enforcement capacities among others. These reforms are not only important to safeguard the individual autonomy but also to create a sense of control among people vis-a-vis their confidence in the digital governance besides placing Pakistan within the global practices of the human rights.
After credibly suggesting that without a serious and practical privacy system, Pakistan will majorly compromise the pillars of democratic responsibility and the rule of law, the paper concludes that, without a logical and realizable privacy system, Pakistan will endanger the entire fabrications of democratic accountability and the rule of law. The lack of regulation of the monitoring technologies, in combination with the past-dated legislative stipulation will jeopardize civil liberties and further cement digital authoritarianism. Thus, it is absolutely necessary that Pakistan reconsider its legal and institutional framework of handling privacy, adopting the pro-right and transparent and accountable model that responds to the conditions of the digital era.
Keywords: Right to Privacy, Surveillance Laws, Legal Protections, Digital Rights in Pakistan, Data Privacy Legislation
