Information ministry has blocked all the websites containing sacrilegious material but is not prepared to unblock the site .
After banning the website, the Ministry of Information Technology had acquired the ‘missing’ filters with the help of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and blocked over 4,000 URLs containing the blasphemous content.
After the test run of filters, missing equipment for the monitoring of ‘grey traffic’ was put in place last week to detect and block illegal international incoming voice calls to save losses of billions of rupees incurred by the national exchequer.
The ministry has either developed or acquired the hardware and the software to control the internet but the YouTube is still kept blocked.
“Unfortunately, the decision of reopening the YouTube has become a political matter,” a high ranking official at the IT ministry told The Express Tribune. “The government cannot take the decision while ignoring repercussions,” he added.
He said the ministry was supposed to convene a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) over the issue but could not find the suitable time to take up the issue. In this connection, he referred to the recent sectarian clashes in that spread all across the country.
“The government will have to face the backlash if it lifts the ban from the video sharing website in given circumstances,” he added.
Responding to a question, he said no proposal was under consideration regarding convening the meeting of the IMC.
The video-sharing website was blocked on September 2012 by the IT ministry on the direction of the IMC following release of a blasphemous movie that triggered violent protests across the country.
A policy directive was also issued by the ministry in May 2012 to the PTA to deploy a state of art solution to block blasphemous and pornographic websites.
The IMC, constituted by the prime minister in 2006, has the mandate to evaluate and restrict offensive online content in Pakistan. The committee is headed by the IT secretary and has representation from different ministries, including interior and religious affairs ministries as well as other agencies.
It was in September when the state minister for MoIT had announced that the missing equipment/software had been acquired and there would soon by the meeting of the IMC for reopening of the YouTube. But it has not happen till date.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had earlier estimated that it would cost $10 million to place the filters to block blasphemous content on the internet. It was claimed that there were eight million URLs that contained blasphemous material.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2013.
COMMENTS (24)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1713853507-0/MalalaHilary-(2)1713853507-0-270x192.webp)
Pakistani Govt Is Fool Why They Not Ban No Naked Websits Instead Of Youtube. In Other Islamice Countries Like iran Saudia Arabia UAE Youtube In unban and Others Naked Websites baned.They are the reall Govt
Once again, Pakistan could set up localized hub for YouTube, solving this ongoing farce, JUST LIKE SO MANY OTHER MUSLIM COUNTRIES HAVE ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED! The question one might ask is just WHY this has not been done! For information, see YouTube on Wikipedia to see discussions and dates of deployment for localized YouTube hubs in Muslim countries!
I have a simple mature solution to this. Enforce the ban on YouTube and porn through the ISPs at subscriber level through a single on/off switch. Leave it to each subscriber to call up their ISP and optionally choose to have the these sites accessible. Those who are sensitive can surf the 'safe' sites only, as defined by the govt/PEMRA; others who feel they are able to view the internet without melting down or blowing up can do so as well.
rather than trying to ban 8 million URLs , why not take the other way round....why not show the world the true peaceful face of Islam...??? what do you think causes blasphemy..??? remember others have started hating Islam just because false aggressive image of Islam drawn up by fanatics, lunatic- self centered clerics who go for militization of islam for their own gains... Islam is religion of peace....turn back to basics and see the results....Islam is so beautiful...if its true face of love, peace, equality, honesty, tolerance is shown then world will stop abhorring , hating and instigating.......aazmaish shart... lastly parents should tell children what is right and what is wrong if children are below 18, after attaining that age if children can not decide between right and wrong then it is fault with parents not with the world....charity begins at home.....sort out your homes ...you will never need censorship......!!!!!!
Pakistan leaders still lack "leadership". If you can't take on the religious conservatives over something like YouTube how are you ever going to confront them over xenophobic preaching in the madrassas or support for people who are trying to destroy Democracy?
Guys why don't you try proxies like www.hidemyass.com or a host of other ones which you should be able to obtain via a single google search. I do accept that the speeds are lower but hey at least you have access to a unrivaled treasure trove of information, entertainment and other digital content.
No system if full proof and the system implemented in Pakistan certainly isn't.
as if the country wasnt using it before!damn they really think we are that immature!how do you think people have been living all this time
And we expect them to take decisions at national level.
Rather than blocking the whole site or inappropriate content, PTA can only allow certain channels such as learning content. This way user will not be deprived of the knowledge that is shared through youtube.
I use YouTube for learning Arabic Language primarily. I also use it for other technical and information of daily use. Now I have been unable to. I especially miss the Excellent Arabic Teaching Lessons by a number of web sites on YouTube. Please open the YouTube without any further delay.
There is a positive to it also, because of this ban home grown sites had been able to acquire share in the local market with little investment. Google is accused not only of privacy breaches, it also provide users data to FBI, cia, etc. Its relations with the eu have also deteriorated due to privacy breaches. Many countries, such as, Brazil, China, etc are annoyed with the company policies. Under such circumstances we need to be more assertive but it should not be under false pretext.
@Junaid: Yes i agree to this point. Youtube ban has more to do with politics rather than blasphemous content. As Youtube is not pliable and a free media, unlike the electronic and print media which can be manipulated and indoctrinated by the government to its benefit. Also it seems that the electronic media also want the ban to stay as they were feeling the pinch, though partly.
@oscar: hear, hear.
A major chunk of the websites that are blocked are FAR from questionable - they are blocked for political gain rather than anything else. The media has failed in this respect. They haven't made it a big enough issue - and when it becomes a big issue after their own websites are blocked by the state, it will be too late to do anything about it.
If only these clowns were educated they would have realized that almost everyone uses proxies to bypass by these restrictions. If a single book in a library has objectionable content, would you burn down the entire library?
so giving people freedom of speech in an 'apparently' democratic country will result in a political fallout?
jahalat. i don't even know where to start.
Seriously...Might as well make Pakistan a communist country cuz EVERYTHING is run by our beloved corrupt and uneducated politicians..