DIGITAL RADICALISATION IN PAKISTAN: REASSESSING THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE UNDER ANTI-TERRORISM AND CYBERCRIME LAW

Abstract

Digital radicalisation has transformed the relationship between extremist mobilisation, public communication, and criminal law. In Pakistan, this transformation is especially significant because longstanding patterns of terrorism, sectarian conflict, and weak institutional coordination now intersect with rapidly expanding digital connectivity, social media use, and encrypted communication. This article examines whether Pakistan's current legal and criminal justice framework can respond coherently and lawfully to digitally mediated radicalisation. The paper adopts a qualitative doctrinal and policy-analysis methodology grounded in the Constitution of Pakistan, the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 and its 2025 amendment, the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984, public policy documents issued by the National Counter Terrorism Authority, and relevant contemporary scholarship on online extremism, cyber regulation, preventive justice, and procedural fairness. The article argues that Pakistan's present framework remains fragmented across anti-terrorism law, cybercrime law, regulatory blocking powers, investigative practice, and evidentiary rules. The main weaknesses are conceptual ambiguity in defining punishable online extremism, overbreadth in some speech-related offences, weak procedural safeguards, persistent digital-evidence challenges, and inadequate coordination among the Federal Investigation Agency, provincial Counter Terrorism Departments, prosecutors, courts, and policy institutions. The study further contends that an effective response to digital radicalisation cannot rely solely on punitive logic. A sustainable framework must combine clear legal thresholds, judicially reviewable platform-intervention powers, specialised evidentiary standards, inter-agency coordination, and preventive measures that remain compatible with constitutional rights and the rule of law. The paper concludes by proposing a structured reform agenda for Pakistan centred on legality, proportionality, evidential reliability, institutional specialisation, and rehabilitation-oriented prevention.