Pakistan Cybercrime Pact: Sudan to Sign MoU With Islamabad

Pakistan and Sudan have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on Pakistan cybercrime cooperation, adding Khartoum to the growing list of countries Islamabad is working with against online fraud and digital crime. The decision came out of talks in Islamabad on Saturday, 7 November 2026, between Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Sudan’s Interior Minister, Lt Gen Babiker Samra Mustafa Ali.

The MoU has been agreed in principle but has not yet been signed, and no text or signing date has been made public. What was signed on the day was a separate agreement letting holders of diplomatic and official passports from both countries travel without visas.

What Pakistan and Sudan agreed in Islamabad

According to the state news agency APP, the two sides decided to sign an MoU to strengthen cooperation in the field of cybercrime. The Sudanese minister said his country wants to learn from Pakistan’s experience in tackling it. The talks also covered internal security, police training and institutional cooperation, and Naqvi offered professional training for Sudanese police officers.

The Pakistani side at the delegation-level talks was large. APP lists the Director General of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), the Director General of the FIA, the NADRA chairman, the head of the National Forensic Agency and the chairman of the social media regulator among those present. That line-up suggests the NCCIA will be the working arm of any cyber deal, although no official statement has said so directly.

Civil registration was another thread. Naqvi said that with NADRA’s help Sudan has issued 36 million citizenship cards, 9 million national identity cards, 18 million birth certificates and 500,000 death certificates, and that NADRA is ready to keep helping. He also directed officials to resolve visa problems faced by Sudanese women married to Pakistanis.

The visit was not limited to the Interior Ministry. Radio Pakistan reported that Field Marshal Asim Munir met the Sudanese minister in Rawalpindi on 6 November, where both sides committed to closer cooperation on security and counterterrorism. Ali also called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during the trip.

Pakistan cybercrime diplomacy: a busy few months

Sudan is the latest in a run of cyber-related engagements. On 6 November, a day before the Sudan talks, Naqvi met UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis in Islamabad, and the two sides agreed to widen cooperation on cybercrime alongside counterterrorism and narcotics, Dawn reported. No cyber MoU was signed with the UK.

In October, Naqvi and Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev agreed in Islamabad to work together on preventing cybercrime and on police cooperation. In July, Naqvi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Salahuddin Ahmed reached an understanding in New York to deepen cooperation against cybercrime and online fraud. On the technical side, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja signed a cybersecurity MoU with Saudi Arabia’s National Cybersecurity Authority, reported by The Express Tribune in September.

Most of these are statements of intent rather than signed, operational agreements. The real test is whether they turn into working channels for sharing evidence and tracing suspects.

The legal and policy base behind the deal

Pakistan’s main cyber law is the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. The government first notified the NCCIA in May 2024 under Section 51 of PECA, declaring the FIA’s Cybercrime Wing defunct and moving its cases and staff to the new body. Dawn reported at the time that the notification named the NCCIA as the designated agency for international cooperation, which is the role a Sudan MoU would draw on.

The PECA amendments of 2025, signed by President Asif Ali Zardari in late January 2025, wrote the NCCIA into the law itself. They also created the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority and a Social Media Protection Tribunal, and made spreading false information that causes fear or unrest punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of up to Rs2 million. The changes were contested when passed, with the false-information clause drawing the most criticism.

Above the law sits the National Cyber Security Policy 2021, approved by the federal cabinet in July 2021. It treats a cyberattack on any Pakistani institution as an act of aggression against national sovereignty and set up a Cyber Governance Policy Committee to oversee implementation.

Why cross-border cooperation matters

Online fraud rarely stays inside one country. Scam call centres, fake investment apps and phishing gangs often run servers, bank accounts and staff across several jurisdictions. When a Pakistani user loses money, the evidence and the suspects may sit abroad, and investigators need a formal route to request data or ask for help. Bilateral MoUs are one way to open those routes faster than case-by-case diplomacy.

For banks and fintechs, better cooperation can help trace money moved offshore after account takeovers or payment fraud. For IT exporters, a credible enforcement record matters to foreign clients who want to know that the country handling their data takes cybercrime seriously. Sudan is not a major tech partner for Pakistan, but each agreement adds to the network of contacts the NCCIA can call on.

The value of the Sudan deal will depend on the final text: whether it covers data requests, joint investigations and training, and how quickly it is signed.

Key facts

• Pakistan and Sudan agreed on 7 November 2026 to sign an MoU on cybercrime cooperation; it has not yet been signed.
• Talks were led by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Sudan’s Interior Minister Lt Gen Babiker Samra Mustafa Ali in Islamabad.
• A visa waiver for diplomatic and official passport holders was signed the same day.
• The NCCIA and FIA directors general attended the delegation-level talks.
• The NCCIA was notified in May 2024 and placed in law by the PECA amendments of January 2025.