The case, FIR no 134/12, was registered after Advocate Muhammad Zahid Saeed, stirred by websites allegedly demeaning the Prophet (pbuh), filed a petition before the District Session Judge seeking a ban on websites including Facebook, YouTube, Google and others.
This is not the first time that a ban has been suggested or imposed on Facebook, YouTube and other sites in Pakistan. In September 2011, the Lahore High Court ordered the ministry of information technology to block access to all websites spreading religious hatred. The judge had, however, made it clear that no search engine, including Google, would be blocked.
Despite this assurance, a case was registered under Section 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PCC) which deals with blasphemy.
Maintaining that the sentiments of the whole Muslim community were hurt, Saeed filed the petition under Section 22-A, 22-B of the Criminal Procedure of Code (CPC).
In his petition, Saeed said that on visiting some websites while on the internet, he and his companion found caricatures of the Prophet (pbuh) published which, he alleged, were "trying to create a war between Muslims and non-Muslims".
He added that the caricatures were a form of “international terrorism and evil profession”.
Session Judge Arshad Masood responded to the petition by saying that the “deliberate and malicious act” of displaying derogatory caricatures is a “continuing offence” and a case must be registered in Pakistan and anywhere else in the world where the sentiments of Muslims were hurt.
Masood ordered the DPO Jhang and the Inspector General of Police, Lahore, to examine the matter in light of the petition and to pass an order if any cognizable offence was found to be made.
The Kotwali police, on receiving the court order, registered the case and assigned the task of investigation to Qaisar Younus.
Younus, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that after collecting the evidence and recording the statements of the petitioner and other witnesses, he would proceed for the arrest of the accused.
The petitioner had maintained that the proceedings against the accused should be served through the Danish Ambassador and US Ambassador in Pakistan.
COMMENTS (44)
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@zaid hamid: Can you please notice the irony in the same sentence you call FB a facade you mention "Our FB fanpage".
Also I didnt knw Zukerburg lies within the Faisabad Jurisdiction, or for that matter Pakistani or in the wider sense that of Islams' ...!
I think the infidels to islam should stop all access for pakistanis to all infidel webpages such as Youtube, Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Gmail and so on. Let the pakistanis make their own halal internet and see how much fun they have looking on one islamic brainwashed site after another. We infidels to islam have given up on mulims. muslims and islam are so full of hate and your lust of killing infidels is just amazing. We dont want to know of you anymore, you are the scum of the earth and a danger to 5.5 billion infidels on the planet earth ! Lets have the clashes of civilizations which islam and muslim seem to long so badly for.
I am so happy that people are finally getting a glimpse of true Islam. Alternative media keeps us informed of enemy advancements. Mainstream media hides those advance to their own peril.
Obama will apologise and everything will be okay. You'll see! .............not.
it,s nonsense in its purity,the wise answer was to give no importence to a stupid person.when muslims will learn this.?
No one forces you to use the internet --- if you intent on avoiding free speech and free expression stay home or start a club called "knuckledragger's for a better Pakistan". You have no right to enforce your religion or beliefs on others.
There should be a law against stupidity.
FB has double the users than the population of Pakistan. Pakistan cannot block him but he can block Pakistan!!!
oh god this is so sad it is not even funny anymore!!! what nonsense is this, zia ul haq played the religous sentiments ,made it good ofr self and died leaving us a poisonous legacy!!
You are wasting tax payers money pursuing such meaning less cases.Some time I wonder whether Judges in Pakistan from Supreme court to lower have any real work to do.
@zaid hamid: Why are you on this website instead of reading the Qur'an? Shouldn't you be praying instead of talking? Shouldn't you be running charities for the poor? You just make Pakistan look bad and you are not very pious like you think you are. If people like you put half of your anger/fervor into actually building this country Pakistan would be rich.
Salam, As alternative for facebook Halalsurf.com is the answer.
About time we whip the Indus River with 30 lashes for bringing flood every year.
@Umair: "What`s the alternate to stop this hatred….I joined youtube for friendship and Interfaith Harmony"
Ok facebook is the place to contact your pre-existing friends - not a place to make 'new' friends. You-tube is a place where you can watch, shows, music, programs from all over the world and even share programs of your own family members via uploading. It has nothing to do with making friends. And neither of these websites are places for interfaith harmony.
If you use these applications for the purposes intended, you will not suffer any hatred.
If they were offended, they can choose not to visit the websites. I am offended by the RADICAL segment of the Muslim population, and I choose not to visit their websites.
It's very simple logic.
~DWS
All those who bracket themselves as champions of 'Freedom' seriously need to re-consider their options before US being finally kicked out of Afghanistan ...
The real motive of this practice is to ban 'Facebook', which is a good idea ... the petitioner is only using 'Blasphemy' as a base.
There is not a single benefit 'Facebook' has given to the nation ... ban it
Just take any random video from India,It can be anything..even a movie song like Kolaveri Di... You can see hundreds of comments from pakistanis with totally disrespectful comments against Hindus and Indians....But when a Christian woman compare Jesus with Mohammed,she is accused of blasphemy and anyone supporting her is murdered.....
Why dont you guys started searching for tolerance in Quran or is it not written in that book???
Mark Zuckerberg is Jewish. So, you'd think that Facebook would be the last social networking site that muslims would use. muslims claim to hate Jews, but they seem to have no problem with using Jewish inventions. There was once a "boycott Facebook for draw muhammed day" Facebook page. A muslim made a Facebook page to tell people to boycott Facebook. How funny is that?
"In his petition, Saeed said that on visiting some websites while on the internet, he and his companion......" The petitioner deliberately, voluntarily, in his proper senses and knowingly clicked to reach such offensive pages. A FIR should be registered against the petitioner for such a wanton offensive act.
We should adopt the motto - Don't offend me with your religion and I won't offend you with my intelligence
Okay, lets go over this again; if you can rattle around the internet calling all and sundry a Zionist, CIA controlled, blaspheming Jew, they can rattle around the internet calling you whatever they like also. This is how freedom of speech works. It does not mean that you get to ban everything you disagree with. We who understand politics and government call that fascism.
@Sarah: Brilliant !!!
Seriously, these people have too much time on their hands
There are a thousand cases pending in Pak courts. Now I know why. The lawyers instead of fighting for justice are fighting a fools war.
@Talha: "How crazy are these people?" And they think, they are holding the rope very tightly. Hold the rope and be dragged over the bridge. Salvation is waiting.
@sarah believe me,,, u rocked with this post
@Sarah:
That just about sums it up.
@Umair: Have you seen how Muslim youngsters (majority of which I suspect are South Asians) behave on youtube? Name calling, extremely abusive language, and death threats are thrown around as if they're a mandatory part of debate.
@Umair: youtube should be the LAST PLACE for anyone to have a "debate". internet anonymity allows every bigoted mindset found in teenage brains to come out. It also affects Pakistani kids who want to speak all sorts of vermin against Hindus, India, Jews, etc and yell Allahu Akbar in the same breath.
i'm startled :P
@Umair:
Get rid of the blasphemy law and stop persecuting people for a starter. People don’t like it when you try to kill them for their faith.
Pakistan is a funny nation. It's the only muslim country on the planet that went to the extent of banning facebook once, no other muslim country did that. The best muslims in the world reside here. The same muslims, who lie, envy bribe, cheat, spread intolerance and hatred, backbite, disrespect, slander, despise and violate all the teachings of the Holy Prophet and not consider this disobeying him as a disrespect towards him. But when some xyz residing in some other part of the planet, who does not even uphold the faith instigate us by some crass act, we get up vehemently, brandishing the flag of faith, declaring him a blasphemer, filing cases against him, burning tyres on our roads, damaging our own infrastructure and telling the world what great muslims we are. I tell you what, a non-believer is not a blasphemer, we, the upholders of the faith, disobey our Prophet at every level of life, we are the hypocrites, we are the blasphemers.
Only if they worked with the same dedication on other things....
Only in Pakistan the courts would accept such stupid cases for hearing. They have no time for real people's real cases rotting for decades and crying for justice.
Let's swap Mark Zuckerberg with those religious fanatics who are persecuting everyone in Pakistan.
Excellent. 4th Gen war has to be fought like this. Needless I tell that Mark Zuckerberg is an American Jew. Facebook was created by CIA n MOSSAD funding. But we have taken this battle on radiowave n internet. 40000 mujahids r ready on our fb fanpage. Great Khair is coming.
How crazy are these people?
Why do they want to the whole country to be ridiculed like this?
Seriously? Do these people have nothing better to do?