Sindh High Court (SHC) issued a directive on Wednesday, instructing relevant authorities to ensure continuous internet access for all citizens leading up to the general elections scheduled for February 8. The high court’s order prohibits the suspension of internet services, and the authorities are required to submit their response by January 29.
The petition leading to this order was filed by Advocate and human rights activist Jibran Nasir, addressing the frequent suspension of internet services in the country. As political canvassing intensifies ahead of the upcoming elections, users have faced multiple internet outages in recent days. A notable incident occurred on January 20, marking the second outage within two weeks for social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Following a prolonged disruption last week, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) attributed the nationwide internet outage to a “technical fault” in its optic fibre network. PTA, through its official account on X, stated that the technical fault had been promptly rectified, and internet services were fully restored nationwide. Downdetector.pk reported disruptions in Google services and the internet service provider PTCL, along with social media claims of a complete internet blackout ahead of the polls.
A recent report titled “Under Siege: Legislative, Judicial and Executive Actions Stifling Freedom of Expression and Right to Information” by the Institute of Research, Advocacy, and Development (IRADA) reveals a deteriorating relationship between the state and media freedoms over the past two years. Instances of censorship, violence against journalists, and government disdain for critical media are highlighted in the report.
During the review period, the PTA blocked 1.1 million URLs, including 187 mobile applications. Approximately 200,000 of these blocked or removed URLs and content were alleged to be related to contempt of court, defense of Pakistan or glory of Islam, defamatory content, and sectarian/hate speech. The report also unveils a significant number of content removal requests from the Pakistani government to major tech platforms such as Google, Meta, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). For instance, between January 2021 to June 2022, Meta restricted access in Pakistan to 12,001 items reported by the PTA for allegedly violating local laws.
