The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday refused to temporarily restore access to YouTube, a video sharing website, in the country.
However, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the LHC ordered the Ministry of Information Technology to form suggestions to block access to the blasphemous material on the internet in Pakistan and inform the court about it on July 25.
Justice Shah issued this order on the petition filed by an NGO, Bytes for All, seeking a lift on the ban on YouTube in the country.
The judge sought suggestions from the ministry as it expressed its inability to just block the material when counsel for the petitioner said the particular objectionable material could be blocked instead of the entire website.
Counsel for the petitioner Advocate Yasir Latif Hamdani requested the judge to issue orders for temporarily reopening of the website but the court denied it.
A representative of the ministry said it was a sensitive issue and the reopening of the website could cause unrest in the entire country.
The judge said he was not an expert on the matter and asked the IT Ministry to form a committee on the issue.
He said the ministry could invite suggestions from the people as well to permanently block the blasphemous material on the internet.
YouTube had been blocked across Pakistan on September 17, 2012 following orders by then prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.
In the petition on behalf of the NGO, Hamdani argued that all internet curbs were counterproductive and had deprived Pakistanis of the right to access information as well as their right to counter any propaganda against the country or against their beliefs.
He said taking away the access of YouTube was the modern equivalent of taking away a scholar’s pen.
Hamdani said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority made an incorrect statement when they declared that they could not ban individual website addresses.
