Pakistan: P@SHA Tells NCCIA to Stop Confusing Legitimate IT Companies With Scam Centers
The Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) has expressed serious concern over a growing number of raids by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on legitimate software and IT-enabled services companies as part of the ongoing crackdown on scam centers.
P@SHA has urged the NCCIA to distinguish legitimate call centers and IT companies from scam centers, stressing that the two are fundamentally different and that legitimate call centers should not be treated as scam operations.
The association stated that Pakistan’s IT industry stands with the law. While it fully recognises the importance of law enforcement, cybercrime investigations, and accountability, it stressed that such actions must be carried out within a clearly defined legal framework, ensuring due process, transparency, and proportionality.
P@SHA said enforcement measures that disrupt legitimate business operations, restrict access to essential work equipment, or create uncertainty for businesses should be avoided, as they can cause significant damage to Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
Scam centers that defraud citizens in Pakistan and abroad damage the country’s reputation and directly hurt legitimate IT exporters. The industry fully supports all lawful, evidence-based operations by law enforcement agencies against such networks.
However, P@SHA said it had received complaints from member companies about NCCIA teams entering offices without presenting warrants, holding and questioning employees for hours, and taking laptops, servers, and mobile phones into custody, even when no unlawful activity was found.
According to the association, such actions disrupt client services, put confidential foreign client data at risk, and create fear among employees and investors.
P@SHA highlighted that the IT sector is one of the few industries in Pakistan’s economy recording consistent annual growth of around 20 percent. IT exports reached a record $4.6 billion in FY2025-26, up from $3.8 billion a year earlier.
The government has set an export target of $10 billion by FY2028-29 under Uraan Pakistan, alongside a broader national goal of $15 billion. Freelance exports alone grew by around 51 percent during the first nine months of FY2025-26.
“Every single dollar is earned on trust,” said Dr. Shoab Ahmed Khan, Chairman of P@SHA.
“A foreign client who hears that his vendor’s office was raided and its servers taken away does not wait for the forensic report. He moves the contract to India, the Philippines, or Eastern Europe. The fraudsters lose a call center, but Pakistan loses a market.”
P@SHA also reminded the authorities that the IT industry supports a wider ecosystem. Pakistan produces more than 70,000 computing graduates every year, while families invest their savings in their children’s education and universities, and the Higher Education Commission develops programmes around industry demand.
The Ministry of IT and Telecom (MoITT), Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), Ignite, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and Higher Education Commission (HEC) are all working towards achieving the country’s IT export targets.
The association warned that indiscriminate raids could undermine these efforts and encourage skilled young professionals to leave the country.
The NCCIA has itself acknowledged that some fraud operators register their businesses as IT companies. P@SHA said this makes careful verification even more important, rather than treating every office with computers and night-shift operations as suspicious.
P@SHA’s Demands
The association has outlined the following measures for the NCCIA:
- Warrants and standard operating procedures: Every search should be conducted under a court-issued warrant presented to the company at the beginning of the operation, in accordance with the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Employees, particularly women, should be treated respectfully.
- Verification before raids: Before taking action against a registered company, the NCCIA should verify its status with PSEB and P@SHA through designated focal persons available around the clock.
- Preserve evidence without disrupting businesses: Where evidence is required, forensic copies should be made on-site instead of seizing entire systems. Equipment not linked to an offence should be returned within seven days, accompanied by a proper seizure memo.
- Protect client confidentiality: Foreign client data held under contractual and data-protection obligations must be handled under strict chain-of-custody procedures.
- Avoid media trials: Companies and their names should not be publicly portrayed as criminal enterprises before forensic findings are available and formal charges are filed.
- Establish a joint coordination and grievance cell: P@SHA has proposed a permanent committee comprising the NCCIA, MoITT, PSEB, and P@SHA to review complaints, share intelligence about scam operators, and develop agreed procedures for raids on registered IT companies.
- Prevent harassment and mistreatment: The association has alleged that raids sometimes involve physical mistreatment of employees present at company premises. It also said officials disrupt CCTV systems and other digital recording equipment. Such practices should be avoided.
“We will work hand in hand with NCCIA to root out the scam networks that give our country a bad name,” Dr. Shoab Ahmed Khan added.
“We only ask that the law be enforced with precision, so that the honest majority of the IT industry is protected, not punished.”
P@SHA said the technology sector cannot grow in an environment where businesses remain uncertain about whether their operations, employees, and essential equipment could face disruptive action without transparent procedures.
The association has requested an urgent joint meeting with the Minister for IT and Telecom, the Interior Ministry, and the Director General of the NCCIA. It also said it would share specific cases reported by member companies with the relevant authorities.
Reference Link:- https://propakistani.pk/2026/11/09/psha-tells-nccia-to-stop-confusing-legitimate-it-companies-with-scam-centers/
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
