SHC directs PTA to monitor YouTube for obscene videos

Court wants authority to make sure no obscene videos are uploaded .

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to monitor the YouTube website and make sure that no obscene videos are uploaded from Pakistan.

The court has also directed PTA to block all links to obscene videos and to ensure that no such video is uploaded from Pakistan on the site.

The PTA will be held responsible if this is not implemented, said the court, adding that criminal cases would be lodged against the officials.

The court also instructed the standing counsel to inform the PTA chairman of these orders immediately.

The verdict was given during the hearing of a petition filed by Sikandar Hayat Shah in which Fahim Mughal was accused of uploading a fake video of his daughter on the broadcasting website.

His lawyer submitted that Mughal fraudulently obtained pictures of his 16-year-old daughter from his son’s mobile phone.

The accused prepared a video using reproduced images, added objectionable features and uploaded it on the YouTube website.

He stated that the fake video had ruined the life of the petitioner’s innocent daughter, who had stopped going to college because of the harassment. Despite lodging complaints with the FIA and Cyber Crime unit, neither had the accused been arrested nor had the obscene video been removed from the website.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the court ordered the Intelligence Bureau Karachi director to transfer Badar Shah, a police officer in Mirpurkhas, as he is a relative of the accused and can affect the investigation.

The hearing has been adjourned till June 22.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2010.