Description
Pakistan being at very early stage of developing a consolidated cyber policy faces a serious challenge of how to navigate the exiting conundrum of protecting of digital human rights and implementing a national-security centric cyber policy. The cyber policy of Pakistan, in its very juvenile shape and form, is titled towards the securitization and ignores human rights and digital human rights of its citizens. This paper, by analysing three legislative pieces pertaining to cyberspace in Pakistan and an only existing cyber strategy of 2021, aims to analyse the condition of digital human rights in Pakistan by contextualising them within the nation-security centric cyber policy of the state. The research deploys a pentagon model of analysis to develop a comprehensive understanding of cyber legislations and cyber strategy, and their impacts on digital human rights. The five main components of this pentagon model include; cyber control(s), cyber policies, responsibilities, cyber culture and classification. The analysis is subsequently provided in three sections corresponding with all five components of the pentagon model; positioning cyber-architecture under the umbrella of national-security, digital human rights; absence of privacy and security protocols in existing cyber legislation, and can there be a secure digital future with ambiguous cyber legislation? The research aims to provide policy recommendations based on the findings developed through analysis to bridge the gap between national security centric cyber policy and protection of digital human rights.
