ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication has strongly condemned the arbitrary shutdown of internet services without any justification while expressing serious concerns over the connectivity issues in various regions of Pakistan.
The meeting of the committee was held at the Old Puppies Hall, Parliament Lodges under the chairmanship of Senator Palusha Zai Khan. The Chairperson along with other members pointed out the flaws in the monitoring mechanism and criticized the lack of clarity on the internet shutdown despite a detailed briefing on the bottlenecks by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman.
Senator Palusha remarked that blocking certain information and completely shutting down the Internet are fundamentally different measures, stressing that the complete shutdown of the Internet is unjustified. He further highlighted a report published in a newspaper alleging billions in losses due to internet glitches. Senator Kamran Murtaza added that such shutdowns appeared to be politically motivated rather than technical decisions, stressing the need to depoliticize the process.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) acknowledged that internet shutdowns have significant implications and stressed the need to address public perception around them. The chairperson of the panel reiterated that such perceptions arise for a reason and called on the ministry to formulate policies to effectively deal with negative narratives. However, the ministry denied the claims, with senior officials clarifying that the national shutdown described in the news was only during elections.
PTA Chairman Major General (retd) Hafeezur Rehman said that whenever a letter from the Ministry of Interior comes, the internet is blocked, a practice that was in place before assuming charge. While giving a briefing, he said that 500 complaints of social media content are being received daily. PTA requests social media platforms to block content, on which platforms block 80 percent of content.
Senator Kamran Murtaza said that if it is not written in the law, how can you block the internet? Where in the act is it written to block internet in a particular area?”
The legal member of the ministry said that the Act does not clearly mention any specific area. Chairman PTA said that it is written in the rules that the Ministry of Home Affairs can give instructions to PTA, if it is wrong, why is the government shutting down the internet for 9 years. “I can tell you the date and time when the internet was shut down, the internet and social media applications were shut down.”
He said: “All of you have been in government at one point or another since 2016. Whenever there is a letter from the Home Ministry, the internet is shut down.” He further said that Ministry of Law and Ministry of Interior can give final legal opinion in this regard.
Senator Humayun Mohmand said that it is not the ministry’s job to tell the Supreme Court that this thing is not in the Act or the Rules because the Rules only mention the content.
On this, the Special Secretary of the IT Ministry said that all online content is blocked only by shutting down the internet. The PTA Chairman said that we have taken a stand on the VPN shutdown issue and will not allow it to shut down, while the registration process of VPN service providers was started on December 19 and two The application was made by internet service providers. The license is expected to receive a large number of applications.
He said that seven submarine cables are coming to Pakistan. A submarine cable called Africa is coming up and this cable will have connectivity this year while 4 more submarine cables are being connected in the coming years. “Sharks can’t eat submarine cables. We’re 97th in terms of internet speed.
Chairman PTA said that social media applications are closed based on Supreme Court and High Court orders.
Later, the standing committee summoned the officials of Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Law. The panel directed that the legal position on the rules made under the PECA Act, 2016, particularly in the light of internet shutdown, be sought from the Law Division and the report shared with the committee. Additionally, the committee reviewed plans to increase the country’s IT exports.