ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication Monday appreciated the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for arresting people accused of spreading blasphemous content on social media.
The committee, which met here with Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar in the chair, directed the officials of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication to hold meetings with ambassadors of foreign countries and with the Council of Islamic Ideology on the issue of blasphemous material being uploaded on social media.
It also directed the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to devise a procedure and set up a helpline for lodging complaints about blasphemous material on social media. The committee members assured the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication of its support in court cases
against blasphemy.
FIA Deputy Director Noman Ashraf informed the committee that four accused of blasphemy had been arrested from different cities and investigation was underway. He said the PTA had been requested not to block some pages of FaceBook and other sites as it was the only way to trace the uploaders of blasphemous material.
The committee directed the FIA to provide the details about the accused in its next meeting. PTA Chairman Ismail Shah told the meeting that the authority was keenly monitoring the social media sites for blasphemous content. Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman said the blasphemous content on social media could not be tolerated by any Muslim.
She said everyone had some offline and online rights, but the things, which were unlawful offline, would be unlawful online too. The minister said it was a good step to approach the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the blasphemy issue, but there was need to raise the same at the United Nations also.
The committee suggested the PTA and FIA to have monthly joint meetings on the issue and directed them to share the Joint Investigation Team’s report.
Members of the National Assembly Mian Muhammad Farooq, Farhana Qamar, Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Amjid Ali Khan, Syed Ali Raza Abidi, Shahjehan Muneer Mangrio and Chaudhry Muhammad Tufail attended the meeting.
