The IT ministry official said that the current administration was keen on getting the ban lifted, adding that caretaker Minister for Information Technology Dr Sania Nishtar was working tirelessly on the matter. PHOTO: FILE
Despite the caretaker administration’s willingness to allow YouTube access back in Pakistan, the government was firm in its stance on keeping the ban until the video-sharing website removed the controversial blasphemous video that provoked countrywide violent protests in September last year.
“Google Inc, the owner of YouTube, has been engaged in progressive talks recently and we hope a breakthrough soon,” said a senior official from the legal department of Information technology ministry. He said the website was being urged to at least block the video in Pakistan if they could not altogether remove it from the website.
YouTube was banned by the Pakistan government in September 2012 after it sparked anger and violent protests across the country and the Muslim world. Following the ban, an inter-ministerial committee comprising representatives from IT ministry, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), religious affairs ministry, intelligence agencies and other stakeholders was formed to look into the issue and suggest a solution.
Last November, the committee suggested in its final report to the prime minister that the ban on the website be kept until it (the website) agreed to remove the video voluntarily or until PTA found a way to block it, which the latter failed to do.
The IT ministry official said that the current administration was keen on getting the ban lifted, adding that caretaker Minister for Information Technology Dr Sania Nishtar was working tirelessly on the matter.
However, the controversial video that was still present on the website remained the bone of contention. “She is looking into all possible ways to resolve the issue but so far there had been no major breakthrough,” the official added. Two days ago, Information Minister Arif Nizami told journalists that a summary was sent to the government suggesting removal of YouTube’s ban.
“The prime minister would not do it on his own without taking all stakeholders into confidence and without considering the committee’s decision,” said the official. He said the IT ministry was the body responsible for execution of any and all orders from the government with respect to the YouTube ban. The ministry would instruct the PTA to lift the ban and allow all service providers to put the website back once the government reached a decision.
The legal way of getting Google Inc to agree to remove the blasphemous video was to file a formal request for which there needed to be Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between United States and Pakistan. However, the treaty was not initiated from Pakistani foreign office administration as it was a lengthy process, the IT ministry official added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2013.
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@Citizen: free air what a joke try this just start researching on holocaust and you will get you answer
I bet those who banned the YouTube, don't even use it. It's us younger generation that need it but why would they care. That video will only be watched by someone who wants to watch it, no one can't do anything about it.
When you think about it, it's one video or all of them. I don't agree with removing a video because a single government simply doesn't like it, but on the other hand not doing so means that a portion of the world's population loses access to, arguably, an extremely important website. Which is the greater of two evils?
@Think: I hope you were being sarcastic when you said Muslims are automatically better.
@Amber: Once you take a step in the wrong direction (aka. direction of islamic extremism), any attempts to reverse it can be fatal and the interim govt. knows that. That is why we have to be extra careful in the future not to let religious nuts dictate our lives.
Looks like somebody owns daily motion or tune.pk?????? who is benefiting ???
I am dumbfounded. If we were to retaliate, we could have blocked G-ads. (ISPs now have proxy servers that can be used to do effective ad filtering as well). And 'experts' please do not tell me that it wont affect Google. Our intent is to be heard. Right? Block ads and it will be a story worldwide.
we are muslims! that automatically makes us better.But we constantly try to make ourselves worse. whats the big deal. good and bad both exist side by side. let the people know no evil can do any harm to us and lift the ban.
Rubbish - the United States Govt has no control over the content of YouTube. If you want to control the content of YouTube then jump through the contractual hoops with Google and obtain a localized version - just like 42 countries have done including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt which have removed the film. This subject has been beat to death - surprised the author or other reporters haven't questioned the competence of govt officials who make blatantly false statements.
@ZAINULABADIN: So this tune.pk is making money with google ads, the same company which own youtube is right?...nice try :)
Thank god i live in the USA.Atleast i breathe free
Pakistan Government should act responsibly............I don't understand why YouTube is being blocked if it could be accessed through VPN and Proxy........and the blasphemous movie is available to download from any torrent websites. Please open YouTube "GoP" as it is a very good source of information for public. :)
Ban mother of all Evils , Electricity and Internet. Both were developed by Evil West to deviate Self Righteous people like us from the right path and we must avoid such devilish technologies.
The solution is quite simple. Get a localised version of YouTube (YouTube Pakistan) and block on it whatever suits you. This is why Saudi, Turkey, India, Indonesia etc. could block the video, because they have a local version and do not use the US version.
I visited several Universities and in some high schools giving seminars. 100% of the kids know how to bypass the censorship. In fact they showed me. They even knew how to accelerate loading videos. So Government of Pakistan ..... what is the point??
Over 200 million videos on youtube and the whole site gets banned just cause of one video. If publicity wasn't made to that video, no one would have even found out it even existed, just like hundreds of other blasphemous videos out there that no one knows or cares about.
Blocking youtube will solve things for you?? The whole internet is full of blasphemous content. Ban the Internet, No?? And what exactly constitutes blasphemy? Is it not Blasphemy when the majority of the Pakistani populations abuse the founder of the Ahmadiyya Community or the Hindu Gods?? Please define blasphemy.
were using youtube via tremendous amounts of proxies so keep your illusion of control to yourself and i hope youtube never bothers to create our own local domain either we just dont deserve nice things :)
SHAME! on those stupid idiots who think youtube should be unbanned! Good job guys! we will make our own youtube. Leave those who try to make us dependent on them. TUNE.PK for everyone. If you dont find what you want on tune.pk. find and upload it yourself you lazy pakistanis..
This video is posted elsewhere as well. Why not ban all the video sites. Oh, and it is readily available in other countries as well. I know let's also ban traveling to those countries. We really do have a common-sense emergency in this country. The damage Zia-ul-Haq and mullahs has done to this country goes far beyond politics.
Its a principle standing, if stuff on Holocaust is not allowed then Blasphemy shouldn't be allowed either.
Bans are pointless. They don't tend to work and what's so harmful about this movie anyway? Do I like the fact that it's out there? No. Does it affect me or my beliefs in any way? No. Why is it that Muslim majority nations (most of the time, not all of the time) react so drastically and ban things left and right lest it "corrupt" people or "hurt people's sentiments?" Why don't Muslims have enough faith in their own faith? Is it really that easy to "threaten" your beliefs or feel as if they are under attack? It's a shame that adults have to have 'restrictions' and 'bans' put on them as opposed to being left to their own choices and deciding for themselves what they want to watch or not watch, or believe or not believe. Youtube also has a lot of educational material and because of one movie, it's banned. Pointless and nonsensical. Restricting content or controlling what reaches people has always been a bad choice. Keeping your people ignorant does not protect them or do them any favors.
If a knife is used to kill someone, the same knife is used to operate someone and give life. For all the demonizing and youtube bashing here, Youtube is a forum where so many tutorials from drawing to math are available. People have made a living by learning skills from youtube. Please look into this matter with a broader perspective.
@Person Smarter then the Govt Monkeys: I couldn't agree with you more. Instead of developing ways to allocate the information and technology, government is actually supressing it. We call this a democratic state, why wasn't a survey conducted before banning youtube? I'm a A level student and I found youtube, a way to access lectures of International universities.
hahahhahahhahahhahahhahahhahahahahahhahhahahahhaaa does anyone even care about this ban????? There are ways to access youtube and even the Government knows that.
As usual they are living in fool paradise
YouTube will never removed video. It is cleared from the day one. Against their policy.
this certainly implies that the ban on youtube shall be fore ever. certainly an idiotic and imbecile attitude towards technology from the officials in government of pakistan... as far as content is concerned well we are one billion muslims in a world of other 5 billion non muslims..why shall they care for our sensitivities .... and what for..?
this certainly implies that the ban on youtube shall be fore ever. certainly an idiotic and imbecile attitude towards technology from the officials in government of pakistan... as far as content is concerned well we are one billion muslims in a world of other 5 billion non muslims..why shall they care for our sensitivities .... and what for..?
I don't get what we are afraid of. Is the fear that the majority of us, god-fearing Muslims, will rush to see this video if its accessible on YouTube? Are we afraid that the video will make us question our religion? If we are so afraid for our faith because of one video, then are we really faithful?
We are completely agree with this desicion
as if really makes a difference anymore
Why not utilize You tube and make (then upload) videos to speak out against this film? There are so many Muslims countries and film makers out there with whom we can creatively collaborate on this as well and upload countless videos on You tube in our favor.
Instead we choose to ban You tube and the only protests we do is the vandalism and destruction of our own property and that of our fellow Muslim brethren!
When will we learn to utilize technology and project our point of view in a logical,reasonable and civilized manner? By resorting to violence, shunning and banning technology we are only isolating ourselves, loosing our voice in the electronic media and causing more damage to our cause. We need to wake up and step into the real world!
My daughter knows how to unblock youtube using servers on net. So I do not see the brains in keeping this blocked. The video in question is also available on other sites as well. Or is there another motive behind the block?