On Friday, the Home Ministry ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to temporarily block access to social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Telegram – from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“It is requested that immediate action be taken on the matter,” the ministry told the PTA chairman.
Shortly after, the PTA released an official statement saying, “In order to maintain public order and safety, access to certain social media applications has been temporarily restricted.”
Following Home Office guidelines, Nayatel – an internet service provider – said in a message to its customers that social media platforms had been blocked on the instructions of the PTA.
These platforms include Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok and Telegram. “The inconvenience caused is regretted,” he said.
After 3 p.m., users reported that social media platforms had been partially restored.
The PTA also released a statement saying “access to social media apps has been restored.”
Although the notification issued by the Home Ministry did not mention the reason for the suspension, the development comes after several days of unrest in the country due to protests by Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) recently. proscribed.
In a video message, Home Minister Sheikh Rashid apologized to the public for blocking applications for hours, saying the government “will try not to [restrict] social media in the future”.
He said social media platforms were blocked because the TLP appealed to its activists to take to the streets to protest after Friday prayers.
The minister said that due to the government’s efforts, “terrorists, agitators and those who spread unrest through social media have been defeated.”
Detained TLP leader Saad Rizvi, in an alleged handwritten note shared by the Prime Minister’s special assistant for political communication Shahbaz Gill late Thursday, had urged his supporters to maintain law and order and avoid blocking roads and highways.
In the letter, Rizvi called on TLP supporters to return home peacefully and cooperate with law enforcement.
However, some TLP supporters insisted on hearing or seeing the words come from Rizvi himself before stopping.
Meanwhile, some rights activists criticized Friday’s social media blackout, warning it could lead to tougher restrictions on freedoms.
Editorial: A blanket ban on TLP is a futile attempt to solve a complex problem
“These arbitrary blocking and banning decisions never served any purpose (and) instead paved the way for blanket bans,” Nighat Dad, head of the Digital Rights Foundation, tweeted shortly before the site does not become inaccessible.
Also on Friday, Sindh Police Counter Terrorism Department launched an action against social media accounts allegedly operated by TLP supporters and workers, according to Sindh CTD Chief Omar Shahid Hamid.
He said the action was taken on a host of charges. “The CTD has taken action against individuals who have used social media to incite violence, spread hatred and glorify assaults on law enforcement,” Hamid added.
He revealed that a list of social media accounts linked to the TLP had been identified and a complaint had been lodged with the FIA Cyber Crime Wing.
The CTD, in its application to the FIA, said anti-state and hate speech material was uploaded by TLP supporters to social media platforms “creating provocations and chaos across the country”.
Government Bans TLP Under Anti-Terrorism Act
On Thursday, the government had slapped a ban on the TLP. A notification declaring TLP a banned organization was issued by the Department of the Interior shortly after the federal cabinet approved a summary to ban the party.
The notification read, “The Federal Government has reasonable grounds to believe that the TLP is engaged in terrorism, [has] acted in a manner detrimental to the peace and security of the country, [was] involved in creating lawlessness in the country by intimidating the public, caused serious bodily harm, injury and death to law enforcement personnel and innocent bystanders, attacked civilians and government officials, created large-scale obstructions, threatened, abused, and promoted hatred, vandalized and ransacked public and government property, including vehicles, and caused arson, blocked essential medical supplies to hospitals, and threatened, coerced, intimidated and intimidated the government [and] the public and created a sense of fear and insecurity in society and the general public.”
Copies of the notification have been sent to the relevant authorities including the secretaries of the various ministries and divisions, the Governor of the State Bank, the Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan and the Passports of the Director General.
The National Counterterrorism Authority had also quickly added the TLP to the list of banned terrorist organizations, bringing the total number of such organizations to 79.
In an effort to keep the ulama in the loop, the minister of religious affairs had also organized an iftar dinner in honor of religious scholars where the minister of interior, sheikh Rashid Ahmed, briefed them on the reasons for the banning of the TLP.
With additional reporting by Javed Hussain in Islamabad and Imtiaz Ali in Karachi.
