Internet censorship: Court asked to ban inappropriate content

Petitioner Sohaib Ahmed said that under the Constitution, Muslim citizens of Pakistan had to lead their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles of Islam.

Petitioner Sohaib Ahmed said that under the Constitution Muslim citizens of Pakistan had to lead their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles of Islam.

He said according to the Constitution, the state needed to prevent prostitution, gambling and use of illegal drugs, printing, publication, circulation and display of obscene literature and advertisements. Internet, he said, had become easily accessible to the young. He said that often junk e-mails lured youngsters to visit pornographic websites and was very difficult to contain the amount of information on the internet from the children.

He said, “Fearing surfing of pornography by children and employees, parents and businessmen have urged the government to introduce filtering devices on the internet.”

However, despite repeated notices by the media and parents, the respondents have paid no heed to the issue.

He asked the court to direct the Ministry of Telecommunications to permanently block obscene websites.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2011.