Pakistan Elections: Sindh HC Orders Uninterrupted Internet Access Till Feb 8

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the federal government and the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to ensure uninterrupted internet access till the February 8 general elections.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi passed the order on a petition filed by lawyer and independent candidate Jibran Nasir against the “unconstitutional” internet outages across the country in recent days.

Nationwide disruptions have occurred in the past month wherein they coincided with PTI’s virtual events on social media platforms. Recently, the parties approached the Supreme Court and urged to take notice of the suspension of internet services and blockage of social media websites.

Pakistan caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi in a press conference earlier this week attributed the outages to “technical” issues and system installations. He also said that there was “no guarantee” such incidents won’t occur in the future.

As per reports, the petition named the PTA, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications as respondents. According to him, the act of shutting down mobile internet and broadband services should be declared as “unconstitutional, illegal, disproportionate, unreasonable and without lawful authority”.

Additionally, the plea sought the immediate restoration of access to social media platforms and the suspension of any directives restricting access to social media till the general elections.

The order also issued directives for “smooth and uninterrupted mobile internet and broadband services to have access to social media platforms/websites”, as per reports.