LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday directed federal government to raise at international forums the issue of hosting blasphemous material against prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Holy Quran on Facebook and other websites. Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry passed the instructions directing ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of information technology to submit a detailed report till next date of hearing about the steps taken to stop display of derogatory contents against Islam on internet.
Earlier, Deputy attorney general Naveed Inayat Malik submitted a report of the foreign ministry in the court stating that as per directions of the court Government of Pakistan had made a lot of efforts for mobilizing Islamic countries of OIC for tabling of a resolution in the United Nations against blasphemous material on American social networking website Facebook. Petitioner counsel Azhar Siddique rejected the report stating it was an old tale and nothing new had been done by the government to raise the issue at the platform of general assembly as asked by the court in its order on May 21 2010.
The judge adjourned the hearing with directions to fix the case after Winter Holiday in the court and directed the government to raise the issue at international forums so that such a thing does not occur in future.
The court also directed the petitioner to keep eye on blasphemous contents if any on internet and move the court when ever such a thing comes to be seen. The court was hearing a petition Muhammad Azhar Siddique seeking action against Facebook, a social networking website, for holding a competition of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and incident of burning Quran by an American.
