ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has decided to stop deporting foreigners arrested in raids on illegal call centres and will instead prosecute them under Pakistani law, agency officials said.
Under the new policy, those arrested will first stand trial in Pakistani courts, and anyone convicted will serve their sentence in a local prison before being sent home, the officials said.
Until now, foreign nationals caught at such centres were deported as “undesirables” without serving any time in Pakistan. Chinese citizens made up the largest number of those deported, sources said, and nationals of Indonesia and Vietnam were also among those involved in running the centres.
The agency raided seven illegal call centres last month and arrested more than 600 people. This time it prepared charge sheets against the suspects and sent them to jail instead of deporting them, the sources said.
