SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Youtube has been blocked since the site uploaded excerpt of sacrilegious film” innocence of Muslims” was uploaded by the site. It is more than a year that site has been blocked in Pakistan. There were news that government has decided to open the site but nothing happened. When is YouTube opening? The question has tormented Pakistan’s internet users since the release of the Innocence of Muslims trailer, and the consequent blanket ban in September 2012.
When PML-N government came into power, along with other issues, it also inherited this issue. PML-N nominated Anusha Rehman as minster for information technology and sane and progressive voice but she failed to address the issue. Since assuming power, the government has refused to tackle the issue seriously, opting instead to issue intermittent vague promises of an end to the ban, while near simultaneously insisting the ban would remain in place. This strategy may have worked indefinitely if it wasn’t for a petition filed in the Lahore High Court that resulted in a court ordered meeting in May between petitioners Bytes For All, members of the Ministry of Information Technology, including Anusha Rehman, and the heads of multiple government and corporate organisations, including the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
Internet freedom activists complain Pakistan has more than earned its nickname of “Banistan”, given the government’s penchant for shutting down bits of the web it doesn’t like. Proxies services that help people get round the block, which are popular in Pakistan, have been targeted by the government. “Pakistan’s ruling elite are not close-minded people but they are terrified,” said Yaseer Hamdani, a lawyer who has worked to try to scrap the YouTube ban. “They know appeasing the mullahs is a mistake, but they are scared of the backlash.” Now lot of water has gone under the bridges and government needs to resolve this issue.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
