Internet, cellular services outages cripple polls

KARACHI:

Pakistan on Thursday witnessed a countrywide shutdown of internet and cellular phone services during the polling process with the authorities attributing the move "to maintain law and order" in the wake of the violence that occurred a day earlier.

However, the suspension was denounced by Amnesty International, which described it as a “reckless attack on people’s rights”, as well as experts and political stakeholders, particularly the PTI, a political party that relied heavily on social media platforms for its electoral campaign.

"It has been decided to temporarily suspend mobile services across the country," an interior ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The spokesman added that “precious lives have been lost” in recent militant attacks in the country and "security measures are essential to maintain law and order situation and to deal with potential threats".

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja said the decision on mobile networks was made by "law and order agencies" following Wednesday's violence and the commission would not interfere.

In a post shared by the state-run broadcaster PTV on social media platform X, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) spokesman Haroon Shinwari said the internet suspension would not affect the results of the polls and they would be announced on time.

He added that the ECP’s system was not linked to the internet.

The CEC also maintained that the ECP had its own exclusive independent networking system that did not require internet.

However, the suspension of the cellular services created hassles for the voters.

Voters in Pakistan were reliant on a text messaging service to confirm the polling station where they were registered.

Forty-year-old Abdul Jabbar said the internet disruption prevented him and his wife from finding their polling station.

NetBlocks, a global internet watchdog, said data confirmed there was a disruption to mobile phone and internet services "corroborating widespread user reports of outages".

"The ongoing election day internet blackout in Pakistan is amongst the largest we've observed in any country in terms of severity and extent," NetBlocks director Alp Toker told AFP.

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"The practice is inherently undemocratic and is known to limit the work of independent election observers and cause irregularities in the voting process."

Amnesty International slammed the suspension of internet and cellular services, calling it "a blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly".

“It is reckless to impede access to information as people head out to polling stations on the heels of devastating bomb blasts and what has been an intense crackdown on the opposition in the lead up to the elections in the country,” Livia Saccardi, the interim deputy director for South Asia at Amnesty International, wrote in a post on X.

“Unwarranted restrictions on dissemination of information, despite reassurances to the contrary from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority and Election Commission of Pakistan, are in breach of people’s human rights at this critical time in Pakistan,” Saccardi added.

Nighat Dad, a lawyer who runs the not-for-profit organisation Digital Rights Foundation, said the outage "is an attack on the democratic rights of Pakistanis".

"Shutting down mobile phone services is not a solution to national security concerns. If you shut down access to information you create more chaos. How do you call [anyone] if, God forbid, there is an attack?"

She added that there was more room for disinformation to spread, including about reports of unconfirmed attacks.

"People will of course put their safety first if they are unable to verify rumours of an attack in their area," she said, noting such disinformation could cause voters to stay away from the polls.

Senior PTI leader Senator Syed Ali Zafar has written a letter to the CEC, expressing concern over the suspension of internet and mobile phone services across the country on the day of the polls.

According to a statement issued by PTI’s Central Media Department, Zafar wrote in the letter that the nationwide suspension of mobile phone and internet services on the day of the elections had caused severe and significant damage to the country.

Barrister Ali Tahir, the Election Correspondence Cell of the PTI in Sindh in-charge, wrote to the CEC as well, claiming that the internet shutdown raised serious doubts about the ECP’s commitment to fulfilling its constitutional duties.

“The suspension of internet services on polling day represents a clear and brazen assault on democracy and the rule of law.”

The PTI in a post on X called on people to remove passwords from their personal Wifi accounts "so anyone in the vicinity" could have internet access.

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PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari demanded that the caretaker government should restore the services.

In a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, PPP Central Election Cell In-charge Senator Taj Haider urged the top judge to “issue instructions” on the matter of internet services being suspended across the country.

He added that the internet suspension had affected voter turnout.

Haider informed the CJP that the interim government’s step was in violation of the Islamabad High Court’s 2018 order, which declared the suspension of cellular services on the pretext of “security concerns” as illegal.

“The closure has also adversely affected reporting and responding to security incidents. One of our workers was shot dead in Mirpurkhas today and it was after an hour that we came to know about the murder,” the letter read.

Haider also maintained that that “all political parties except the PML-N” have raised their reservations over the internet suspension

Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief and NA-250 candidate Hafiz Naeemur Rehman also expressed his concerns over the shutdown of cellular services.

In a video posted by the JI on X, the party’s Karachi chief condemned the suspension of mobile services, describing the move as a ‘shameful stunt”. He accused the interim government of paralysing the communication system on the day of the elections.

By the time the polling was over by 5pm, both the internet and cellular services were resumed partially in Islamabad as well as Rawalpindi. Subsequently, they were completely restored across the country.

(With input from agencies and our News Desk in Karachi)