Pak court orders Facebook access to be restored

May 31, 2010 12:43 pm | Updated November 28, 2021 08:52 pm IST - Lahore

Supporters of Pakistani religious party Tanzeem-e-Islami listen to their leader at rally against a Facebook page, in Islamabad on Saturday. Photo: AP

Supporters of Pakistani religious party Tanzeem-e-Islami listen to their leader at rally against a Facebook page, in Islamabad on Saturday. Photo: AP

A Pakistani court today directed authorities to restore access to Facebook nearly two weeks after blocking the popular social networking website for hosting a page with caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

“Restore Facebook. We don’t want to block access to information,” Justice Ijaz Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court said.

He adjourned the proceedings till June 15 and said he would review his decision on that date.

“I am not closing this case,” the judge said.

The judge asked Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik to tell the court on June 15 whether any websites, including Facebook, had again uploaded any blasphemous material.

Mr. Malik informed the court that the Pakistan government had registered a protest over the blasphemous and sacrilegious content posted on Facebook with the U.S., where the website has its headquarters.

U.S. authorities had agreed with Pakistan that the hosting of such material on a website is a “crime,” Mr. Malik said.

An assurance had been given to Pakistan that something similar would not happen again, he added.

The Islamic Lawyers Movement, which filed the petition that led to the blocking of Facebook and other sites hosting blasphemous content, protested the court’s decision.

The judge remarked that if any websites hosted blasphemous content, they would again be blocked.

Justice Chaudhry had directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on May 19 to block Facebook over “blasphemous” caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

Authorities subsequently extended the crackdown to other websites.

In Islamabad, Wahaj-us-Siraj, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan told PTI that about 1,200 URLs continued to be blocked to prevent access to blasphemous and sacrilegious content.

He said the ISPs would restore access to Facebook as soon as they received an order from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.