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islamabad:
Pakistan's High Court on Wednesday ruled that the government must restore social media platform X within a week after more than two months of disruption caused by orders from the interior ministry, lawyers said.
The platform, formerly known as Twitter, has remained largely active since February 17, when jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party called for protests over government officials' admission of vote manipulation in the February election. It continues to be inaccessible.
Pakistan's communications authority later acknowledged in court documents that it had been ordered by the interior ministry to shut down the site.
“The Sindh High Court has given the government one week to withdraw the letter, but if it does not, appropriate orders will be passed on the next date,” said a lawyer challenging the ban. Moiz Jaaferi told AFP.
The court's decision is expected to be announced within hours.
The interior ministry said X was blocked for security reasons, according to a report filed in the Islamabad High Court in a separate challenge to the closure and shared with the media.
The submitted report “previews what constitutes Pakistan's 'defense' or 'security' terms and what measures need to be taken to safeguard national security. It is the sole prerogative and province of the federal government to decide.” By Khurram Agha, Minister of Interior.
For weeks, the government and Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) refused to comment on the outage.
The Interior Ministry suggested that intelligence services were behind the order.
Closing social media services “if requested by security or intelligence agencies” is “well within the scope of the provisions of the PTA Act,” the report said.
Activists opposed to the closure claimed it was designed to quash dissent after the Feb. 8 poll, which was fraught with allegations of fraud.
According to NetBlocks Internet Monitor Alp Toker, access to X is sporadic and sometimes available in short cycles depending on your internet service provider, forcing users to use virtual private networks.
The Ministry of Interior shut down mobile internet services across Pakistan on election day, citing security reasons.
After that, there was a significant delay in announcing the voting results, leading to suspicions of rigging.
Khan's opposition party had already been under heavy censorship in the weeks before the election, banning its TV channels and holding rallies and forcing it to campaign online.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
