• Official declines to give time frame for full restoration of online services, says interior ministry ‘knows better’
• IT minister says govt would’ve banned Facebook and TikTok, not X, if it wanted to curb freedoms
• National Forensic Agency bill sails through NA as well

ISLAMABAD: Even as members from the treasury benches protested the throttling of the internet across the country, a government official told the National Assembly on Wednesday it was not possible to give a time frame for when online services would be restored fully, indicating that cyber disruptions could persist indefinitely.

During Question Hour, parliamen­tary secretary for cabinet secretariat Sajid Mehdi said that slow internet speeds were due to security measures being taken on the directives of the interior ministry. “Neither the Pak­­istan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) nor the cabinet division can give a time frame. The Interior Ministry knows better when the security situation will improve, or [whether] the situation [is] fine or not,” he remarked.

PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel had raised alarm over the way the internet had been throttled in the country, regretting that one even finds it difficult to open voice notes and photos over the popular WhatsApp messaging platform. He inquired what kind of firewall the PTA was working on, and wondered as to why it was taking so long.

Mr Patel complained that people associated with the IT industry and related businesses were incurring losses of billions, while the academic activities of students were also being badly affected. He sought to know when full speed internet services would be restored.

Endorsing his views, his party colleague Shazia Marri chided the government over the introduction of the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill under the prevailing conditions. “I was laughing the day that bill was introduced, that what internet and [what] digital Pakistan are we talking about when there is no internet facility?”

“The people responsible here are telling users that their internet service provider might be at fault, but the internet is okay. I’m tired of hearing the term firewall […] We are no longer capable of talking about e-commerce,” the lawmaker lamented.

Ms Marri, however, conceded that freedom of speech must be exercised with responsibility. “We cannot give a license to people to exercise this right without any limits”, she remarked, adding: “I condemn the use of digital space for terrorism and harassment”.

She highlighted that the restrictions were causing collateral damage and asked why the people who not involved in such negative activities should be made to pay the price.

Minister of State for Information Technology, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, told parliamentarians that social media platform X (formerly Twitter) was banned by PTA on the advice of the Interior Ministry, adding that her ministry had nothing to do with it.

However, she maintained that the decision was not meant to curb freedom of expression and speech, claiming that TikTok and Facebook — the two most popular social media platforms used in Pakistan — were still active.

“Had it been the [government’s] purpose to curb freedom of expression, [it] would have banned TikTok and Facebook”, she remarked.

Citing a PTA report, the state minister claimed that internet speeds had improved by 28 per cent and mobile internet speeds by 24pc as compared to the previous year. She also said that IT exports had increased by 34pc during the past five months, which she claimed represented an improvement in the quality of the internet, rather than a deterioration.

Ms Khawaja recalled that fixed line or broadband internet was not shut down, even when mobile internet services were shut due to security concerns, such as during Ashura and other events.

However, she acknowledged challenges in the user experience over the last couple of months, but noted that nothing was more important than national security. “We have to protect the country from cyber-attacks and data leaks,” she said.

“In my opinion, no other country has as much freedom of expression as there is in [Pakistan],” the minister claimed, giving the example of allegations levied against public office holders such as parliamentarians.

On Wednesday, the National Assembly also passed the National Forensic Agency (NFA) bill, which had been cleared by the Senate last week. The bill is now set to become an act of parliament following presidential assent.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2024