Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed states even countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE have not banned YouTube. DESIGN: ANUSHAY FURQAN
The committee noted that Pakistan was the only Muslim country where this facility has been denied to the public.
The functional committee, headed by Senator Afrasiab Khattak of Awami National Party (ANP), accepted a resolution which was tabled by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who stated that the ban on the video-sharing website is unjustified as there is no such ban in any other Muslim country, including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
The government had blocked YouTube in Pakistan on September 17, 2012, following a controversial film that many in Pakistan found offensive.
The committee chairperson noted that even the head of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) believed that the ban was not useful and that it was still possible for users to access the material that had led to the ban of the website.
The resolution will also be presented during a session of the Senate in the evening today.
The committee decided to hold a special hearing the YouTube ban on May 5, 2014.
COMMENTS (17)
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Pakistani people demonstrated, Pakistan government requested but YouTube didn’t honor our religion or requests! YouTube should stay banned in Pakistan.
i was saying from the beginning thats: 1:- this is unjustified, its the youtube policy that only uploader can remove his video, and its a good thing, if a common man uploads a video against a power man about his cruel acts, or curruption or what ever, so the world will listen to his voice and no one will be able to remove. 2:- privacy should be respected 3:- the uploader was not youtube, why to block 4:- you dont watch, that will mean their is no as such video. simple
soooo, they're gonna reopen YouTube, because other Muslim countries haven't blocked it either? umm, they don't have a brain of their own? why act like a sheep that would follow its herd even if it was gonna jump off a cliff?
YouTube should immediately be restored in Pakistan because the reason why it was banned was because of the blasphemous movie "Innocence of Muslims" but even that is not there anymore as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered YouTube to remove the video on February 26, 2014. The video is not there anymore so there should be no reason to keep YouTube banned.
YouTube doesn't force you to view any of it's massive content ... no different than a big library that has a few books that you may find objectionable. This offensive movie never got an audience in the West or anywhere else despite unwarranted publicity generated by Muslim riots - the only thing you can control in life is your own actions so quit trying to act as moderator of the World.
Pakistan is master of doing useless things. If youtube is not blocked in Saudi Arabia, we have no excuse to block it. A lot of educational stuff is available on youtube and we should unblock it immediately.
@Aschraful Makhlooq: every issue have it's own importance. Youtube may not be the national issues but dragging the simple issue too long is not a good idea.
Good decision.We are getting tired of proxies and no matter what the people who want to see are seeing the web sites and it is also bringing malwares to the systems
How insane to support by saying illegal thing is available by other means it should be made legal. Liquor is easily available in every part of country, why should not we allow it and make it legal. Government is doing its responsibility by blocking it, the individual circumvention is not the responsibility of government. So please opposition do some thing positive and productive Except killing of Thar Poor and creating anarchy in Sindh to buy cheap property.
What has changed? Google still refuses to remove the offending videos. Why the drama in the first place?
**Fact is youtube has a lot of educational online courses that was helping a massive amount of students (everyone with an internet connection).
Hope youtube is opened soon for the sake of students.
-A Student**
How much shamefully Youtube's issue has been so much more important and nation's issues have so much more unimportant that now Youtube's issue is being discussed in senate and senate committee accepts resolution for unblocking Youtube whereas despite banning Youtube not only Youtube but every blocked website has been the most easiest to access now-a-days thru the different unblocking softwares freely downloadable from internet and how shamefully our leadership,IT ministry and PTA are wasting time on this useless issue!!!!!
Do not disappoint me, Pakistan!
Please reopen youtube, enough is enough!
Please reopen youtube, Opposition has lot of fake rigging audios they want to upload and derail democratic process.