Pakistan’s ISI can now officially listen to phone calls and trace them

Pakistan’s federal cabinet has authorised the officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), not ranking below grade 18, to intercept calls and messages as well as trace calls through any telecommunication system.

This has been communicated in the form of an SRO 1005(I)2024 dated July 8, 2024, by the Ministry of IT and Telecom as envisaged under Section 54 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996.

The SRO said the federal government has approved this in the interest of national security and for pre-empting any offence.

The ability to trace calls and messages is included in this authorisation.

While it is not immediately clear whether the regulation would apply on messaging applications also, the step is largely seen with a lot of scepticism given that there is currently no mechanism or criteria in place for recording calls.