SHC bars internet suspensions until polls

Court issues notices to respondents for 29th

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court on Wednesday restrained the relevant authorities from suspending internet services till the general elections on February 8.

In its order, a two-member bench, headed by SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, ordered the interim federal government and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to ensure uninterrupted internet services till polling day.

The order came on a petition filed by human rights defender and lawyer Jibran Nasir, who was contesting the polls for PS-110 as an independent candidate, against the frequent “unconstitutional” internet outages in the country in recent days.

Internet services were affected thrice since the past month,. The first time was on December 17, the second on January 7 and the latest one on January 20.

The internet suspensions coincided with the PTI’s virtual events and the party recently moved the top court against them, asking it to take notice of the disruption of popular social media platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

A day earlier, Interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi blamed “technical issues” for the recent internet outages across the country, saying that there was no guarantee that such incidents would not occur in the future.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said the internet was disrupted because of a “technical fault”.

Netblocks, a global internet monitor, wrote on X that live metrics showed “a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across Pakistan.

In his petition, Nasir maintained that the act of shutting down mobile internet and broadband services should be declared as “unconstitutional, illegal, disproportionate, unreasonable and without lawful authority”.

He sought the suspension of any orders restricting access to social media platforms till the next general polls.

Nasir named the PTA, interior ministry and information technology and telecommunications ministry as respondents in his plea.

The court held an in-chamber hearing on the petition.

Later, the SHC issued an order, directing the issuance of pre-admission notices to the respondents and the deputy advocate general for January 29, seeking their replies on the matter.

“[The] respondents are directed to ensure that unless the provision of Section 8 and Section 54 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organisation) Act, 1996, read with Rule 5 of Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2021, are attracted, there shall be no disruption and shutting down of mobile internet and broadband services,” the order read.

The court further ordered “smooth and uninterrupted mobile internet and broadband services to have access to social media platforms/websites”.

Nasir, later in a post on social media platform X, confirmed the court’s directives.

He wrote that the SHC on his petition as an independent candidate had taken notice of the repeated internet and social media disruptions caused by the PTA that appear to target the PTI but also causes loss to all candidates, businesses and citizens at large.

In a video attached with the post, he said internet services were shut down and social media access was interrupted whenever the PTI held an online event.

He added that this “pre-poll rigging” was not just stopping the PTI from contesting free and fair elections but also affecting independent candidates like him.

Nasir pointed out that social media platforms were efficient and cost-effective ways of reaching out to constituents.

He described the internet outages as a “violation of our fundamental human rights”, highlighting that the entire nation had to suffer and losses worth billions of rupees were incurred because of them.
Nasir continued that the goal of his plea was preventing any act of pre-poll rigging that could be reported on the social media.

(With input from our News Desk in Karachi)