State Surveillance without Safeguards: Constitutional Limits on Digital Monitoring in Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70670/sra.v4i1.2559Keywords:
Informational privacy; digital surveillance; proportionality; Safe City; Data Privacy; Right to Privacy; Fundamental RightsAbstract
Despite being one of the biggest digital-governance infrastructures in South Asia, ranging from NADRA's biometric database to Safe City facial-recognition networks to PECA-enabled cybercrime investigation, the data these systems generate is not governed by any single law that regulates its collection, retention, sharing or judicial oversight. This article argues that the right to informational privacy is already broadly defined under Article 14 of the Constitution, and in combination with the rights provided by Articles 4, 9, 25 and 199, offers a good basis for requiring courts to adopt a proportionality test to information security practices. The article, based on the doctrinal analysis of the constitutional and statutory law of Pakistan, relies on comparative analysis of India, the United Kingdom, and the United States to recommend a proportionality and oversight framework for Pakistan and concrete legislative reforms in order to close the gap in the Pakistani surveillance accountability.
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