The Lahore High Court on Friday asked for assistance from the Ministry of information and Technology regarding the ban imposed on YouTube.
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed on the order whilst hearing a petition forwarded by a nongovernmental organization (NGO) and directed the federal government to take Google’s point of view in the matter which is the parent company of YouTube.
The website was banned when Google refused to remove a video from YouTube which contained Blasphemous content.
At the time, Pakistan and Google did not have an agreement which would allow the country to censor content itself. Now, however a spokesman from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has stated that they will have the authority to censor content themselves in another four months.
The court directed the Minister of Information and Technology (Dr Sania NIshtar) to appear before the court and appoint a representative who would assist the court in the matter.
The court also requested that the Ministry talk to Google’s administration in Singapore to get their point of view on the matter and also attempt to get a representative from Google who could appear in court on May 17.
The court further stated that the hearing would resume on May 3.