NCCIA Orders Full Digitization of Cybercrime Records in Multan

Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has ordered the complete digitization of records at its Multan Circle, as the agency moves toward faster complaint handling, centralized case management and greater use of digital evidence in cybercrime investigations.

NCCIA Director General Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi issued the instructions during a visit to the Multan Circle, where he inspected the front desk, reporting centre, investigation wing and record room.

Rizvi directed officials to digitize the circle’s records completely to improve both internal working procedures and the management of cybercrime cases.

He also ordered officials to provide citizens visiting the office with prompt guidance and necessary legal assistance without unnecessary delays.

The development forms part of a broader modernization drive inside Pakistan’s dedicated cybercrime investigation agency as online financial fraud, harassment, identity theft, blackmail and other technology-enabled crimes place increasing demands on investigators.

However, the latest announcement should not be interpreted as meaning that all NCCIA records across Pakistan have already been digitized.

The specific order reported on September 29 relates to the agency’s Multan Circle, although NCCIA is separately pursuing wider digital record-keeping and case-management reforms.

What Did the NCCIA DG Order?

During his inspection, Rizvi reviewed several operational sections of the Multan office.

These included the:

• Front desk
• Reporting centre
• Investigation wing
• Record room

He reviewed facilities provided to citizens, seating arrangements and the system used to maintain records relating to cybercrime cases.

Following the inspection, the DG instructed the Additional Director of the Multan Circle to ensure the complete digitization of its records.

The objective is to improve the office’s working system and make case management more efficient.

This Is More Than Scanning Paper Files

Digitizing government records can sometimes be misunderstood as simply scanning documents and storing them as PDF files.

An effective digital case-management system goes considerably further.

Instead of investigators relying primarily on physical files, properly structured digital records can make information searchable and easier to retrieve.

For example, investigators could potentially locate information using:

Complaint number

Case number

Suspect details

Type of cybercrime

Investigation status

Digital evidence

or

Relevant dates.

Exactly how the Multan Circle’s digitized system will operate has not yet been publicly detailed.

But NCCIA’s broader modernization efforts indicate that the agency wants digital records to become part of a more integrated investigative system.

NCCIA Is Also Modernizing Its Criminal Record Management System

The Multan directive comes alongside a wider push to modernize NCCIA’s Criminal Record Management System, or CRMS.

Recent meetings chaired by the DG have examined the creation of a more centralized digital mechanism for maintaining criminal records.

The proposed system is intended to help investigators identify repeat offenders and access relevant information more efficiently.

That could be particularly useful in cybercrime cases.

Unlike many conventional crimes, the same suspect may target victims in multiple cities without ever physically travelling between them.

A scammer operating from one location could potentially defraud victims in:

Lahore

Karachi

Islamabad

Multan

and

Peshawar.

If information remains fragmented across different offices, investigators may not immediately recognize that multiple complaints involve the same person, phone number, bank account or online identity.

Centralized records could make those connections easier to identify.

Complaint Management Is Also Being Improved

NCCIA is separately reviewing its Complaint Management System.

The agency has directed officials to improve the processing of complaints involving crimes such as:

Online financial fraud

Scams

Blackmail

Sextortion

Harassment

Stalking

and

Crimes committed through social-media platforms.

The goal is not merely to register complaints.

NCCIA wants complaints to be acknowledged, tracked and processed more quickly, while complainants receive appropriate information about the progress of their cases.

That could address one of the most important problems facing citizens dealing with law-enforcement agencies: uncertainty about what happens after a complaint is submitted.

Why Digital Records Matter for Cybercrime

Cybercrime investigations are particularly dependent on information.

An ordinary criminal investigation might involve physical evidence, witnesses and a specific geographical crime scene.

Cybercrime can involve evidence spread across numerous digital systems.

Investigators may need to examine:

• Mobile-phone records
• Bank transactions
• Social-media accounts
• Email addresses
• IP information
• Digital wallets
• Screenshots
• Devices
• Online identities
• Platform records
• Electronic communications

Organizing these records efficiently becomes increasingly difficult when case volumes grow.

A properly designed digital case-management system can make information easier to retrieve and connect.

Digital Evidence Is Critical in Court

Digitization also has another important dimension: evidence quality.

Rizvi separately instructed Multan investigators to improve investigations and strengthen evidence using digital forensic methods so that cybercrime cases can be pursued effectively in courts.

Digital evidence needs careful handling.

Investigators must be able to establish where evidence came from, how it was collected and whether it was altered after collection.

A digital case-management system can potentially help document this process.

That can include recording:

Who collected evidence

When it was obtained

Where it was stored

Who accessed it

and

How it was used during an investigation.

These records can become important when evidence is challenged during legal proceedings.

Faster Assistance for Citizens

Rizvi also directed officials to ensure that every citizen visiting the Multan Circle receives quick guidance and necessary legal assistance.

That part of the announcement may prove just as important as the digitization order.

Victims of cybercrime often do not know:

Where to report the crime

Which evidence to preserve

Which documents to provide

Whether their complaint falls under NCCIA jurisdiction

or

What happens after filing a complaint.

Providing clear guidance at the reporting stage can improve the quality of subsequent investigations.

Financial Fraud Is a Priority

During a separate meeting at the Multan Circle, Rizvi instructed officials to prioritize action against several major categories of cybercrime.

These included:

Financial fraud

Online harassment

Cyber harassment involving women and children

and

Blackmail through social media.

Investigators were told to improve investigation quality and make greater use of digital forensics.

This reflects the changing nature of cybercrime in Pakistan.

Many cases no longer involve highly technical attacks against computer systems.

Instead, criminals frequently use ordinary digital services to manipulate victims.

What Does Online Financial Fraud Look Like?

Cyber-enabled financial fraud can take many forms.

A victim might receive a fraudulent message claiming to come from:

A bank

Courier company

Government department

Mobile operator

or

Online marketplace.

The victim may then be directed toward a fake website or persuaded to disclose sensitive information.

Other schemes involve:

Fake investments

Online shopping fraud

Account takeovers

Impersonation

Phishing

and

Social-engineering scams.

Investigating these crimes can require information from multiple organizations, including banks, telecom operators and online platforms.

Centralized digital records can help investigators connect similar cases.

Parliament Has Also Examined Cyber-Fraud Complaints

The scale and variety of complaints being referred to NCCIA has also attracted parliamentary attention.

Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs was told in September that the Prime Minister’s Public Affairs and Grievances Wing had referred 140 cyber-related complaints to NCCIA during FY2025-26.

Those included:

These numbers represent complaints referred through that particular government channel rather than NCCIA’s total national cybercrime workload.

That distinction is important.

NCCIA Is Pakistan’s Dedicated Cybercrime Agency

The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency is now Pakistan’s dedicated federal institution for investigating cybercrime.

The agency operates under the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control.

Its responsibilities include cyber investigations, digital forensics and prosecution support.

Its mandate covers offences under Pakistan’s cybercrime legal framework, including the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, as amended in 2025.

The agency’s establishment represents an institutional shift in how Pakistan handles cybercrime.

Cybercrime investigation functions that were previously associated with the Federal Investigation Agency have moved to the specialized NCCIA structure.

Why Pakistan Created a Dedicated Cybercrime Agency

Pakistan’s digital economy has expanded dramatically.

Millions of people now use:

Mobile banking

Digital wallets

E-commerce

Social media

Online marketplaces

Cloud services

and

Digital government services.

Greater digital activity creates economic opportunities.

It also creates more opportunities for criminals.

A specialized cybercrime agency can concentrate technical expertise that conventional police units may not possess.

Investigators increasingly need knowledge of:

Digital forensics

Cryptocurrency

Social-media investigations

Cloud infrastructure

Electronic evidence

Cybersecurity

and

Online financial transactions.

NCCIA Has Offices Across Pakistan

NCCIA operates through regional circles and reporting centres.

Its official territorial-jurisdiction information lists offices covering different districts across Pakistan.

The Multan Circle itself covers a large part of southern Punjab.

Its jurisdiction includes districts such as:

Multan

Bahawalpur

Dera Ghazi Khan

Rahim Yar Khan

Muzaffargarh

Khanewal

Vehari

Lodhran

Rajanpur

and several others.

This means improving record management at Multan can affect cybercrime complaints originating across a large geographical area.

New Cyber Crime Reporting Centers Are Being Developed

NCCIA is also working to bring additional Cyber Crime Reporting Centers (CCRCs) into operation.

Recent internal reviews have examined construction and infrastructure work at various offices.

Several reporting centres in the North Zone were reported to be in the final stages of construction and installation of IT equipment.

The DG instructed officials to complete the work on priority and make the new centres operational without unnecessary delay.

Expanding reporting centres can make NCCIA more accessible outside Pakistan’s largest cities.

Daily Performance Monitoring Is Being Introduced

Digitization is also being connected with greater management oversight.

Rizvi has directed that regular daily performance reports be obtained from Cyber Crime Reporting Centers.

That could allow senior management to monitor:

Number of complaints

Pending cases

Investigation progress

Case disposal

and

Office performance.

Digital records make this type of monitoring substantially easier.

A paper-based system might require individual offices to manually compile reports.

Centralized digital systems can potentially generate performance information automatically.

Digitization Could Reduce Lost or Duplicate Records

One practical benefit of digitization is better document management.

Physical files can be:

Misplaced

Damaged

Duplicated

or

Difficult to locate.

Digital records can reduce those risks when they are backed up properly.

They can also allow authorized officials in different locations to access relevant information without physically transferring a file.

That could be particularly useful when a cybercrime investigation crosses regional boundaries.

But Digitization Creates Its Own Cybersecurity Risks

There is an important irony in digitizing the records of a cybercrime agency.

Once information becomes digital, it itself becomes a potential cyber target.

NCCIA records can contain extremely sensitive information.

That could include:

• Victim identities
• Suspect information
• CNIC details
• Phone numbers
• Bank information
• Digital evidence
• Investigation records
• Social-media data
• Device information
• Court-related documents

A centralized database could therefore become highly valuable to attackers.

Digitization needs to be accompanied by strong information-security controls.

Access Control Will Be Essential

Not every NCCIA employee should necessarily have access to every record.

Modern case-management systems typically use role-based access controls.

For example:

Front-desk employee

→ access to complaint-registration information.

Investigator

→ access to assigned cases.

Forensic analyst

→ access to relevant digital evidence.

Senior officer

→ broader supervisory information.

The exact NCCIA architecture has not been publicly detailed.

But controlling who can view, modify or export sensitive information will be crucial to any successful digital system.

Audit Logs Could Improve Accountability

Digital systems can also record who accessed information.

An audit log could potentially show:

Officer name

Record accessed

Time of access

Changes made

and

Reason for access.

That can improve accountability and discourage unauthorized use of sensitive information.

It also makes investigations easier if a record is altered improperly.

Backups Are Equally Important

Moving away from paper records does not eliminate the risk of data loss.

Digital information can be lost through:

Hardware failure

Cyberattack

Ransomware

Software errors

or

Human mistakes.

Government agencies therefore need multiple backup layers.

Sensitive law-enforcement records should ideally be stored using secure and redundant systems so that a single technical failure cannot destroy case information.

Digitalization Could Help Identify Repeat Offenders

One of the most valuable benefits could be identifying patterns across cases.

Imagine five people file complaints involving different social-media accounts.

At first, the cases may appear unrelated.

But the records might contain the same:

Bank account

Phone number

IP address

Device identifier

or

Digital wallet.

A centralized searchable system could reveal the connection.

Investigators could then recognize that they are dealing with one organized fraud network rather than five unrelated incidents.

This is particularly important for online crime because criminals can target victims across multiple jurisdictions.

Artificial Intelligence Could Eventually Play a Role

NCCIA has said it intends to embrace advanced technologies as cyber threats become more sophisticated.

Structured digital records could eventually make more advanced analytical tools possible.

For example, software could potentially identify:

Repeated phone numbers

Shared banking details

Common IP addresses

Recurring usernames

Similar fraud patterns

or

Links between suspects.

AI-assisted analysis could eventually help investigators process large volumes of information.

However, automated tools would need safeguards.

A computer-generated link between two cases should support human investigation rather than automatically establish guilt.

Deepfakes Are Becoming Another Challenge

NCCIA’s leadership has specifically identified emerging technologies such as:

Artificial intelligence

Deepfakes

Manipulated audio

Manipulated video

and

Identity deception

as part of the evolving cybercrime landscape.

These technologies make digital forensics increasingly important.

An investigator may need to determine whether an audio recording is authentic, whether a video has been manipulated or whether an online identity belongs to the person it claims to represent.

That requires specialized technical capabilities.

Citizens Can Submit Cybercrime Complaints

NCCIA’s official website provides complaint forms in both English and Urdu.

The agency instructs complainants to complete the relevant form and submit it to their nearest NCCIA office together with supporting evidence.

For a victim of cybercrime, preserving evidence can be extremely important.

Useful information may include:

Screenshots

Transaction records

Phone numbers

Usernames

URLs

Email addresses

and

Messages.

Victims should avoid deleting relevant information simply because it is disturbing or embarrassing.

That evidence may later help investigators establish what happened.

Digitization Alone Will Not Solve Cybercrime Delays

The move toward digital records can improve efficiency, but technology alone cannot solve every institutional problem.

A modern case-management system still requires:

Trained investigators

Digital forensic specialists

Adequate staffing

Reliable IT infrastructure

Cooperation from banks and telecom companies

Coordination with international platforms

and

Effective prosecution.

Recent reporting indicates NCCIA itself is dealing with staffing pressures while expanding its operations.

Digitalization can make existing staff more efficient, but it cannot completely replace human capacity.

Why International Cooperation Matters

Many cybercrime investigations cross national borders.

A fraudulent social-media account may operate through a foreign platform.

A server may be located overseas.

Cryptocurrency may move between international exchanges.

A suspect may use a foreign phone number or VPN.

Pakistan’s investigators therefore sometimes need information held by companies or authorities outside the country.

Digitized, properly documented case files can make such cooperation easier by allowing investigators to provide structured evidence and requests.

What Happens Next?

The immediate task is the complete digitization of records at the Multan Circle.

But the more significant development will be whether NCCIA successfully connects local record systems with its broader national case-management infrastructure.

That could eventually create a system in which investigators can identify relationships between cases regardless of where the original complaint was registered.

The agency is simultaneously expanding reporting centres, modernizing complaint management, strengthening digital forensics and increasing performance monitoring.

Taken together, these changes indicate that NCCIA is attempting to build a more technology-driven national cybercrime investigation system.

The Bottom Line

National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency Director General Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi has ordered the complete digitization of records at the agency’s Multan Circle.

The directive followed an inspection of the office’s front desk, reporting centre, investigation wing and record room.

Officials have also been told to provide citizens with quick guidance and necessary legal assistance and improve the management of cybercrime cases.

The announcement is significant because it forms part of a broader NCCIA modernization programme.

The agency is separately improving its Complaint Management System, modernizing its Criminal Record Management System, expanding Cyber Crime Reporting Centers and strengthening digital-forensic capabilities.

Digitizing records could help investigators retrieve information faster, connect related cases and identify repeat offenders.

But the transition also creates new responsibilities.

Cybercrime records contain highly sensitive personal and investigative information, meaning centralized digital systems will require strong access controls, audit logs, backups and cybersecurity protections.

Most importantly, the September 29 directive should be reported accurately:

NCCIA has ordered full digitization of records at its Multan Circle. It has not announced that every NCCIA record across Pakistan has already been digitized.