By Obaid Abassi
A parliamentary panel has asked the government to take steps to remove “blasphemous material” from social media and has convened a meeting in this regard next week in which officials from intelligence agencies and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will give an in-camera briefing.
The Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control which met on Monday expressed serious concerns and asked the government to take tangible steps to remove the blasphemous material from the websites.
The panel also convened a meeting next week in which officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and other relevant departments will give in-camera briefings to the lawmakers over the issue.
Pakistan People’s Party PPP’s Senator Rehman Malik condemned the material while chairing the meeting and directed the PTA and FIA to take steps for their removal.
PTA Chairman Syed Ismail Shah informed the committee that the authority has taken various steps to remove such contents from the websites. However, he refused to share further details due to the sensitivity of the matter. He said that the matter was also pending in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
Last week, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC threatened to block the websites. Soon after the IHC’s statement, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also warned that the government could take the “extreme step” of permanently blocking all such social media websites if they refuse to cooperate.
The committee also directed the PTA to block the fake Twitter accounts of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani. Rabbani wrote letters to the heads of the FIA, IB, and PTA, saying that two fake accounts under his name were operational on the social media website Twitter.
The committee passed The Control of Narcotics Substance (Amendment) Bill, 2017 moved by Senator Chaudhary Tanveer Khan, who sought an amendment in section 9 of The Control of Narcotics Substances Act, 1997 by specifying and fixing the minimum benchmarks for punishments.
The Senate panel also passed The Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment), Bill 2017 moved by Senator Sirajul Haq of the Jamat-e-Islami.
