YouTube ban questioned in the Lahore High Court

A judge hearing case passed several remarks questioning the ban.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court held two hearings in the YouTube access case last week. The division bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah passed several remarks questioning the ban.

The first hearing was adjourned with directions to the minister for information technology to submit a policy statement regarding the ban on the video sharing website.

The reply was read out in court two days later. The judge, however, noted that the ministry’s stance had not changed in 9 months.

Justice Shah said, “It is disappointing that the ministry offered the same statement it did 9 months back.”

The court arguments of counsel seeking withdrawal of ban and in favour of ban and adjourned the case for further arguments.

During the course of hearing, the judge said, “A lot of academic material is available on YouTube and students are suffering due to this ban. Many people visit this website through different proxies.”

The judge went on to say that people should not watch things they didn’t want to.

Justice Mansoor also admonished Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique when he heard that he had been watching a video on YouTube earlier.

The judge also said the Supreme Court had only ordered removal of only the objectionable film. He said the failure to do so had resulted in the ban on the entire website.

The judge further said no other Muslim country had banned the website over the film.

Exit control list

The Ministry of Interior and the Anti-Narcotics Force opposed the removal of Ali Moosa Gillani’s name from the Exit Control List. They told the court that they feared he might flee from the country.

Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik was hearing Gillani’s petition, son of former premier Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, seeking removal of his name from the ECL.

The Interior Ministry and the ANF told the court that Moosa was being tried in the Ephedrine case.

ANF’s counsel also submitted a report in this regard.

Gillani’s counsel sought time to study the report. The court accepted his request and adjourned hearing till April 14.

Former MNA

A division bench of the LHC last week suspended the one-year imprisonment of former MNA Mudassar Qayyum Nahra by Gujranwala sessions court in a fake degree case and ordered his release.

The bench headed by Justice Shahid Hameed Dar passed the order on Nahra’s appeal against trial court’s verdict.

His counsel said he had been implicated in a ‘politically motivated’ case.

He said the trial court had not considered the discrepancies in evidence against him.

Voter verification

The court also dismissed a petition by MNA Malik Riaz against the order of an elections tribunal through which the NADRA was ordered to verify thumb impressions of voters in NA-118.

The NADRA was given a go-ahead for voter verification.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2014.