Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Thursday that the government had ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and other relevant bodies to submit a report after citizens in various cities of Pakistan claimed they had been facing internet connectivity issues.

Her statement comes a day after the business community and the internet service providers alleged that the government’s heightened efforts to monitor internet traffic had resulted in a significant nationwide slowdown of services, leading to losses.

The Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Wispap) said internet speeds over the past few weeks plummeted by 30 to 40 per cent and warned that the situation had become so dire that many businesses were considering relocating their operations to other countries.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Khawaja said that the government had requested a report from PTA and other relevant institutions related to the disruption of the internet.

“The relevant authorities, including PTA, have been asked to inform us about the impact on data traffic in the last two weeks,” she said.

“Internet should never be slow, we have even been talking about bringing 5G technology to Pakistan. There is no doubt about that, and conversations about higher [internet] speed are underway.”

The minister added that the government setting up a firewall had been blown out of proportion, adding that it was a routine exercise across the globe to enhance internet security.

“There was a web-management system being operated by the government before too, which is now being upgraded,” she said. “It is the right of the government to [take such measures] given the cyber security attacks that this country has to go through.”

Major online platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp have been hit hard since last week with users reporting slowdowns and difficulties in accessing messaging and social media applications.

Some users have speculated that the disruptions were the result of a firewall being installed by the government to monitor and keep check on users.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had denied that the issue was caused by a firewall and said it had not received any complaints related to internet disruptions yet.

Dawn.com has separately reached out to the PTA but is yet to receive a response.

Reported outages

According to Downdetector, an internet outage tracking website, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) was the most affected while services provided by Zong, Nayatel, and Fiberlink were also affected.

Dawn.com staffers also experienced data outages on Ufone — a subsidiary of PTCL — and Jazz.

Downdetector showed a sharp spike in reported outages of PTCL services from around 12:30pm onwards.

Most of the outages were reported from Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Islamabad, and Multan, among other cities.

Within the same timeframe, more than 35 outages were reported by Zong users while over 30 such complaints were made by Nayatel users.

Meanwhile, Meta platforms Facebook and WhatsApp also witnessed a sharp spike in outage complaints at around 1pm, Downdetector showed. Both platforms have also seen a higher-than-usual number of outages in the past 24 hours.

Senate body wants issue resolved within 2 weeks

Meanwhile, the Senate’s standing committee on IT ordered the tech ministry to resolve the issue of internet disruptions and access to social media apps within two weeks.

During the committee’s session today, presided over by PPP Senator Palwasha Khan, members from both the treasury and opposition benches raised concerns about the issues.

PTI Senator Humayun Mohmand highlighted that the issues were negatively impacting businesses in Pakistan.

PML-N’s Afnanullah Khan claimed that the cyber slowdown had caused the country a loss of at least Rs500 million.

Responding to the concerns, IT Secretary Aisha Humera Chaudhary said there was a “disruption in services of mobile operators”.

“It can be a technical issue that will soon be solved,” she said.

Subsequently, the committee directed the IT ministry to solve the issue of internet and social media platforms’ connectivity within two weeks. It also sought a report on the losses caused by these issues.