Govt to avoid blanket mobile phone outage in future

IT minister says only affected areas will be targeted from now on

KARACHI:

Information Technology (IT) Minister Aminul Haq said on Friday the government would not go for a blanket mobile phone blackout in the country in case of any untoward situation, rather only the affected areas would be targeted.

Talking to the media persons at the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), the minister noted the losses of billions of rupees during the latest outage in the wake of rioting across the country on May 9.

The riots erupted after the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a graft case. During the unrest, several government buildings, including sensitive military installations were attacked in difference parts of the country.

“We strongly condemn the events of May 9. Imran Khan has crossed the red line,” Haq, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) said. “For the last one year, they [PTI] were turning the youth against the country's army and the state.”

Speaking about the mobile phone outage, Haq stated that his ministry “believes that the ban hinders the process of development”. However, when asked about the social media’s role, he added that the government was preparing the rules in this regard.

Also read: Journalists reporting May 9 riots face raids

He stressed that that political issues should be resolved politically. “All the political parties should sit across the table in order to take matters forward,” he added. “The doors of the MQM are open to all.”

Earlier, addressing a conference organised by KATI on ‘Start-ups for IT Export’, the minister revealed that the Google management had increased the number of scholarships for the Pakistanis to 45,000 – 40% of which would be reserved for women.

“We are in contact with the Google administration. The Google management increased the number of scholarships from 15,000 to 45,000 on May 9, but because of these events, this important information could not reach the masses,” the minister said.

He reiterated the IT ministry’s determination to achieve the goal of Digital Pakistan. He said that an IT policy had been formulated keeping in view the country’s requirements for the next 50 years.

“The development of the IT business is not possible without the facility of connectivity,” the minister told the conference, adding: “In the last three years, 70 new connectivity projects have been started at a cost of Rs75 billion.

Speaking on the occasion, Senator Haseeb Khan said that young people were doing creative work in the IT sector, therefore, it was important to encourage and support those young people.

“We cannot do research and development work without the IT and Pakistan cannot compete with its competitors in global markets without research and development,” Khan said. “The IT ministry should plan in this regard.”