Pakistan: Two years since ban…: No sign of YouTube being restored

The Express Tribune

Two years after YouTube was banned in the country on September 17, 2012, there are no signs of authorities lifting the restriction on the use of the video-sharing website any time soon.

YouTube was blocked after a controversial video titled Innocence of Muslims was uploaded by a user.

No other Muslim country banned YouTube in reaction to the video. Last year, Afghanistan and Bangladesh accepted interstitial screens [and lifted the ban]. Pakistan was offered interstitials, but declined it.

The ban on YouTube was placed through an executive order, issued by the Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Evaluation of Websites (IMCEW). It was announced by the then prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.

In 2013, Bytes for All, a non-profit organisation, moved Lahore High Court against the ban.

Yasser Latif Hamdani, counsel for the NGO, argued the case challenging internet filtering and surveillance by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority. “The biggest hurdle to lifting the ban is former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s September 17, 2012, order… that the Innocence of Muslims should not be made available through YouTube under any circumstances,” Hamdani told The Express Tribune.

He said the Supreme Court should take suo sponte action and resolve the matter so that Lahore High Court could allow access to YouTube.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rasheed said the government would lift the ban as soon the Supreme Court ordered it. Farieha Aziz, who appeared before Lahore High Court as amicus curiae, said, “Proceedings at Lahore High Court have unearthed many truths. The ultimate resolution lies at the doors of the Supreme Court.”

She said while the case must be taken to the Supreme Court, it did not mean the government’s job was done or would start after the case was filed. “No attempt was made by the government until it was forced into addressing the matter. And on many occasions when asked for clarifications, it opted for a ‘this matter is subjudice’ stance.” She said the government needed to come clean. “Put before the people what has been discussed. Tell them exactly the solutions that have been suggested and the logic behind them. It’s time they take the initiative to do a job that is theirs instead of being forced through court orders into performing it,” said Aziz.

Sana Saleem of BoloBhi said, “The Ministry of Information Technology has been absent from the debate on the YouTube ban and internet censorship in Pakistan. For two years, the ministry has gone from statements about buying filters to citing a Supreme Court order as justification for the ban. The government, especially the ministry seems completely uninterested in the citizens’ right to information.” On April 24, 2014, Senator Nasreen Jalil had written to the prime minister saying that the ban was a matter of great concern for the citizens of Pakistan.

Both the committees on IT in the National Assembly and the Senate took up the matter. The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights passed a unanimous resolution on April 21, 2014, recommending that the ban be lifted.

Lahore High Court has gone through an extensive process to include the input of stakeholders and come out with a clear answer that it is for the IT Ministry to lift the ban on YouTube. The National Assembly also passed a resolution on May 6, 2014, calling upon the government to lift the ban. The resolution was tabled by Shazia Marri of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Kahkashan Farooq, a social media activist, says YouTube was banned because it was being used effectively to uncover administrative and political corruption.

“But you won’t find the people who thunder and roar everyday on the virtues of their versions of democracy speak up in defence of YouTube that has served, and could continue to serve the people better than they ever have.”