Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, on Thursday, issued notice to the federation and other parties involved in YouTube ban case.
A petition was moved by the Chief of Watan Party, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, which stated that YouTube is a source of knowledge and information for people and should not be banned.
YouTube is a video-sharing website which has been a source of entertainment and knowledge, all over the world, since 2005 when it was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim.
YouTube was banned in Pakistan in 2010, after a blasphemous film was posted on the website which enraged Muslim around the world. Since the five years of YouTube ban in Pakistan, youth had learned to use it through proxies and other means anyways.
Along with a big archive of older videos, including some very rare ones, YouTube is a great source of online learning as well as it contains many channels that teach different skills to people through video tutorials.
SC issued notice to federation of Pakistan, Attorney General and other parties while adjourning the hearing till undefined period. Plea challenging long-standing ban on YouTube has been filed in the SC.
Barrister Zafarullah has moved the petition in the Lahore Registry of the SC. The plea states that ban is affecting studies and students research. Blasphemous material was removed from the website and it does not bear anything objectionable now.
The plea states that students from different disciplines of research are encountering issues due to the prolonged ban. The SC has been requested to lift the ban as it is not ‘required’ now.