KARACHI – The Sindh High Court issued notices to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) chairman and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) president/chief executive officer (CEO) on Friday on a constitutional petition pleading to block sexual websites’ links appearing in the results of Yahoo!, MSN and Google search engines.
The petition was filed by Human Rights Commission South Asia (HRCSA) representative Iqbal Kazmi who sought blocking the disagreeable websites’ links.
Kazmi submitted that a number of sexual websites were easily accessible in the national language, adversely affecting the mindset of the younger generation with regard to sex.
He said that a number of cases have been reported where minors were sexually abused by adults.
He held sexual websites responsible for causing such tendencies in the local population, leading to heinous offences.
He cited PEMRA chairman and PTCL president/CEO as respondents in the petition.
He stated that a number of Internet users are teenagers, and that due to easy access to sexual websites, everyone could easily browse them without any restriction.
“A number of fake stories regarding sexual relations between family members and close relatives are published on several websites, corrupting the mind of the younger generation and encouraging them to attempt objectionable acts,” he said.
He pleaded to order blocking such websites’ links from Yahoo!, MSN and Google search results and other such search engines and websites.
The court refused to hear the petition after hearing the preliminary arguments of the petitioner regarding the websites.
The petitioner pleaded that the respondents should be ordered to take strict measurers to block such websites.
The court issued notices to PEMRA chairman and PTCL president/CEO on the constitutional petition of the HRCSA representative.
