Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said on Tuesday that right to privacy was "more important for women", like in "Noor Mukadam case mainstream media aired footages that caused so much distress to her family".

Mazari was addressing a panel titled "Privacy from a Human Rights Perspective" organised by the Digital Rights Foundation for its 8th annual National Data Privacy Conference held in Islamabad.

"Newer amendments to violence against women laws now ensure privacy of the victim of violence to ensure their dignity," she said.

The right to privacy was a fundamental human right, but it needed to be balanced with other competing rights, said the federal minister.

Mazari also spoke separately on the Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Bill, calling it a “landmark achievement of our [the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] government as it has included input from all major journalist bodies and senior journalists.”

In the second half of the panel, Bolo Bhi Director Usama Khilji stressed the importance of a strong commission on privacy.

“We need a privacy commission that is independent of the proposed privacy commission that is separate from the government that can hold the state and powerful actors accountable,” he said.

In another panel discussion titled "How Private is the Digital ID in Pakistan” National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairperson Tariq Malik highlighted the importance of a data protection law in the country to ensure standardization of data privacy practices as an important part of the “social contract between citizens and the government”.

Malik said that section 28 and 29 of the NADRA Act provided legal safeguards against privacy breaches and NADRA is moving towards anonymization of personal data.

“Drafting the Data Protection Legislation: Progress and Next Step”’ was another panel discussion in the conference which included panelists Director IT of Ministry of IT and Technology Bilal Abassi and founder and CEO of Katalyst Labs Jahan Ara.

"A strong personal data protection law needs to apply both to the public and private sector because public bodies hold large amounts of data on citizens,” said Ara.

Talking about the efforts of the IT Ministry in this regard, Abassi said, “The Ministry has been working on the Personal Data Protection Bill since 2017, though the first draft was not as human rights friendly, the current version of the law reflects the international best practices such as the GDPR while taking into account Pakistan’s local context.”