ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new interior minister said Tuesday the country needed better laws to regulate Internet free speech, as disruption of social media platform X stretched into its fifth week.
Islamabad has declined to clearly say whether it is behind nationwide restrictions to the platform, formerly known as Twitter, which have left it rarely accessible since February 17.
Pakistan’s polls earlier that month were marred by allegations of rigging, and the outages began after a senior government official made a public admission of vote tampering.
“We need to make better laws,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said when asked whether his ministry was responsible for the X shutdown.
“Expression is fine, but making false allegations against people is wrong – it’s happening and needs to be fixed.”
“We must reassess our own laws and look into what is being misused,” he told reporters in remarks broadcast on state TV.
X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were key planks in the election campaigning of jailed ex-prime minister and popular opposition leader Imran Khan.
The former cricket star was barred from running and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was subject to a sweeping crackdown of arrests and censorship ahead of February 8 polls.
Most of their campaigning moved online, where it was shut down by numerous social media blackouts which Islamabad blamed on technical glitches.
Rigging claims were also fueled by a nationwide mobile Internet shutdown on polling day, which the caretaker government said was required for security reasons after twin bombings killed 28 a day earlier.
X remained unavailable to AFP reporters in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore on Tuesday afternoon – but the site has been momentarily accessible at times over the past five weeks.
“The problem is there is no transparency by the government,” said Sadaf Khan, an analyst for Pakistani campaign group Media Matters for Democracy.
“Twitter is being banned specifically because it has emerged as a platform where political disclosure takes place,” she told AFP.
Information minister Attaullah Tarar has given mixed signals over disruption, telling one local media outlet it “is working” and another that it was “already banned” when the new government came to power.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – who secured the office through a shaky coalition after Khan’s candidates defied expectations to secure more seats than any other party – has frequently published statements on X.
On Monday, he used the platform to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin for his re-election in a poll slammed by independent observers and the West as the most corrupt in post-Soviet history.
Pakistan interior minister urges new laws for online speech
https://arab.news/2xjb3
Pakistan interior minister urges new laws for online speech
- Mohsin Naqvi calls for a reassessment of laws after being asked about prolonged disruption of platform X
- He says the social media is used to raise false allegations against people, adding the issue needs to be fixed
Pakistan says ensuring interfaith harmony key priority as nation marks Christmas
- Pakistan is home to over 3 million Christians, making it the third-largest religion in the country
- PM Sharif economic well-being, equal opportunities for all in message to nation on Christmas
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday identified ensuring interfaith harmony and freedom of rights for all citizens, especially minorities, as his government’s key priorities as the nation marks Christmas today.
Millions of Christians worldwide celebrate Dec. 25 as the birth of Jesus Christ, marking the day with religious and cultural festivities. The Christian community in Pakistan marks the religious festival every year by distributing gifts, decorating Christmas trees, singing carols and inviting each other to lavish feasts.
Christianity is the third-largest religion in Pakistan, with results from the 2023 census recording over three million Christians, or 1.3 percent of the total population in the country.
However, Christians have faced institutionalized discrimination in Pakistan, including being targeted for blasphemy accusations, suffering abductions and forced conversions to Islam. Christians have also complained frequently of being reserved for jobs considered by the masses of low status, such as sewage workers or brick kiln workers.
“It remains a key priority of the Government of Pakistan to ensure interfaith harmony, protection of rights and freedoms, economic well-being, and equal opportunities for professional growth for all citizens without discrimination of religion, race, or ethnicity,” Sharif said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The Pakistani premier said Christmas was not only a religious festival but also a “universal message of love, peace, tolerance, and goodwill” for all humanity.
Sharif noted the Christian community’s contributions to Pakistan’s socio-economic development were immense.
“Their significant services in the fields of education, health care, and other walks of life have greatly contributed to the promotion of social harmony,” the Pakistani prime minister said.
Despite the government’s assurances of protection to minorities, the Christian community has endured episodes of violence over the past couple of years.
In May 2024, at least 10 members of a minority Christian community were rescued by police after a Muslim crowd attacked their settlement over a blasphemy accusation in eastern Pakistan.
In August 2023, an enraged mob attacked the Christian community in the eastern city of Jaranwala after accusing two Christian residents of desecrating the Qur’an, setting Churches and homes of Christians on fire.
In 2017, two suicide bombers stormed a packed church in southwestern Pakistan just days before Christmas, killing at least nine people and wounding up to 56.
An Easter Day attack in a public park in 2016 killed more than 70 people in the eastern city of Lahore. In 2015, suicide attacks on two churches in Lahore killed at least 16 people, while a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a 130-year-old Anglican church in the northwestern city of Peshawar after Sunday Mass in 2013.
The Peshawar blast killed at least 78 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country.
