A file photo of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday took suo motu notice of blasphemous content circulating on the internet and sought a report from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman within a week.
A complaint, registered through the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court by UK-based Pakistani Barrister Amjad Malik, drew the chief justice’s attention to the increasing amount of blasphemous material circulating on the internet.
According to a press release issued by the apex court’s media directorate, Malik asked the Supreme Court to issue necessary directives to PTA, the government and relevant institutions to block objectionable pages that are promoting blasphemy in the garb of freedom of expression.
In September 2012, the PPP-led government banned YouTube, following violent protests across the country against the blasphemous film Innocence of Muslims. Soon after the ban, an inter-ministerial committee, comprising representatives from the information technology ministry, PTA, Federal Investigation Agency, religious affairs ministry, intelligence agencies and other stakeholders, was formed to look into the issue and suggest a solution.
Last November, the committee in its final report suggested that the YouTube ban should be upheld until authorities agree to remove the video voluntarily or till PTA finds a way to block it. The telecommunications body, however, has failed to block the content from the world’s largest video sharing website.
An IT ministry official said the legal means of getting Google Inc to agree to remove the blasphemous video was to file a formal request for which there needs to be a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty signed between the United States and Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2013.
COMMENTS (7)
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@BLTHIN: "....After that they’ll also ban women from the country." . Haven't they started implementing that already in K-P, K?
How long will it take to understand, that one cannot ban, and keep banning, it is not as simple as one thinks it is. Not only is it difficult to ban, it is not worth the time and effort. Better to be open, honest, able to live with other peoples thoughts, and ideas, than try to ban them, just as it is equally important that others live with your thoughts, even if they strongly object. We live in a world with people with many differing ideas, religions, thoughts, we have to know that everyone is equal, everyone can express their opinions, one offcourse does not have to agree, but that is the essence of a plural society. Better to live in a plural society than a dogmatic, hypocritical, society. As society grows, as population grows, diversity grows, therefore it is important that trying one's best to ban, simply does not work. Keep trying untill you realize your limitations.
bhaiyan CJ..please take sooomooo of your lower courts..let the PTA do its work..
Ban the Internet in Pakistan. Then Ban all tv channels and radio. That's likely to eradicate blasphemy ...
@BLTHIN: What do u recommend.
Here the point is also that PTA has incompetent people who do not know the latest technologies to block what ever we want from the Internet. And I know that PTCL has spent in millions on such softwares but they still can't do the job, why, again because there are incompetent sifarishi people sitting there.
Soon all internet will be banned from Pakistan. After that they'll also ban women from the country.
Where have all the comments gone which were posted earlier?