KARACHI: Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Pakistan’s minister for science and technology, announced on Thursday the Peshawar High Court had lifted a ban on popular social media app TikTok, with the company saying it was “pleased” the platform was once more available in Pakistan.
On March 11, a court in the northwestern city of Peshawar said it had ordered TikTok banned after a private complainant said the app was spreading indecent content. Internet service providers were directed to immediately block access to the app, which stopped working within an hour of the direction.
“Pesh HC [Peshawar High Court] has suspended the operation of single bench judgment, ban on @TikTok_Paki has been lifted,” Hussain said on Twitter. “My submission is let’s be very careful while taking decisions that may effect Economic future of Pak, we need a framework to encourage int[ernational] companies so to make Pak their investment hub.”

Pesh HC has suspended the operation of single bench judgement,ban on @TikTok_Paki has been lifted,my submission is lets be very careful while taking decisions that may effect Economic future of Pak,we need a framework to encourage int companies so to make Pak their investment hub

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 1, 2021

TikTok has been one of the most-downloaded apps in the South Asian nation behind WhatsApp and Facebook.
In a statement released on Thursday, TikTok said:
“We are pleased that TikTok is once again available to our community in Pakistan. This is a testament to TikTok’s continued commitment to enforcing our Community Guidelines to promote a safe and positive community online.”
It added: “We want to acknowledge Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s support and ongoing productive dialogue, and recognize their care for the digital experience of Pakistani users, which goes a long way to assuring a stable, enabling environment to allow us to explore further investment in Pakistan, and to keep open vital economic opportunities for Pakistani creators through TikTok.”
Last August, Pakistan blocked five dating apps, namely Tinder, Tagged, Skout, Grinder and SayHi. On July 21, Paksitan’s telecoms regulator said it had banned the Singaporean live-streaming app Bigo over “immoral, obscene and vulgar content” and issued a last warning to Tiktok for “similar” reasons. Bigo was subsequently unbanned. The hugely popular online game PUBG also remained banned in Pakistan through last July.