Senator Mohsin Aziz, chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, said on Friday that the relevant departments will be summoned to find out the reasons for the internet shutdown across the country in recent weeks.
He said after a meeting of the committee today (Friday) that the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Ministry of Information Technology have been summoned to Parliament House on this matter. It has been decided to do.
According to Mohsin Aziz, the committee also decided that the concerned authorities will be asked when and on the basis of which reasons the internet was shut down, including the meetings of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI).
This decision of the Interior Committee of the Upper House came at a time when general elections are to be held on February 8.
On January 20, the services of internet and social media platforms were restored after being affected for several hours. Earlier, PTI had urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the matter due to disruption in services on December 17 and January 7 as well.
On January 20, the PTA had termed the disruption of internet service on X (formerly Twitter) as a technical issue.
PTA informs the public that the reason for the disruption in the Internet some time ago was due to a technical fault, which has been rectified and the Internet has been fully restored across the country.
However, Alp Tokar, director of the NetBlocks watchdog organization, which oversees cyber security and internet governance, told news agency AFP that the shutdown was “clearly systematic” and had happened before during PTI events. Similar restrictions were imposed.’
Confirmed: Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across #Pakistanincluding X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube; the incident comes as persecuted opposition leader Imran Khan’s political party, PTI, launches its second virtual gathering pic.twitter.com/lwl24Kv5td
In a press conference in Islamabad on January 22, Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said that ‘the reason for the internet shutdown in the country was technical and it cannot be guaranteed that there will be no such disruption in the future.’
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party today alleged that PTI’s website has been blocked in the country.
PTI tagged PTA, Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi and Information Technology Minister Umar Saif on X and demanded an explanation as to why the website was blocked.
Senator Mohsin Aziz from PTI says that elections should be made credible because the world is watching, foreign observers will also come who will see small things.
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In the Senate Interior Committee today, Senator Samina Mumtaz Zahri also presented a bill to amend the PICA law, which proposed to increase the punishments and fines for those involved in child pornography.
Proposed amendments to sections 22 and 42 of the PICA Act, 2016.
The bill proposed to increase the punishment of accused involved in child pornography from seven years to 10 years and increase the fine from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Senator Samina’s recommendations also include the amendment that the federal government enter into a mutual legal assistance agreement with the United States where there is data on social media applications used in Pakistan. All these recommendations will be considered in the next meeting.
PTA and IT officials have also been invited to give their opinion on their suggestions.
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