Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday summoned the interior secretary on April 17 to give detailed reasons for the shutdown of social media platform X — which has been inaccessible or remains disrupted for last two months.
Chief Justice of the IHC Aamer Farooq gave this order while a petition challenging the “ban” on X.
Access to X has been disrupted in Pakistan since February 17, when former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Chattha accused the Chief Election Commissioner and Chief Justice of Pakistan of being involved in rigging the February 8 general elections.
Rights bodies and journalists’ organisations have been calling for X restoration and said the muzzling of social media amounted to curbing freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, internet service providers have also reported losses due to X disruptions. The United States also called on Pakistan last month to lift restrictions on social media platforms.
On March 20, the interior ministry had informed the Sindh High Court that the social media platform was blocked in February pending further orders on the reports of intelligence agencies.
The interior ministry’s admission came days after Information Minister Attaullah Tarar acknowledged that X was “already banned” when the new government took over, adding there was no official notification for the clampdown.
At the previous hearing, the IHC had sought a detailed report from the interior ministry regarding the outage of the social media platform.
In Wednesday hearing, the Interior Ministry’s joint secretary appeared before the court and presented a report on the outage of the social platform. However, IHC CJ AamerFarooq, who presided over the hearing, expressed his dissatisfaction at the report.
During the hearing, the secretary stated that X was disrupted on the basis of reports by intelligence agencies. At this, the IHC CJ asked the official to produce documentation, adding that he had been summoned to provide details.
“What manner is this, what is this attitude?” CJ Farooq asked. “Assist the court, what is this? You have not brought any files or anything and everything was done deliberately, everything has been shut. Shall I summon the secretary?” he asked.
