The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday sought assistance from the Ministry of Information and Technology on a ban imposed on Youtube (the video sharing website) and directed the federal government to seek the point of view of Google, the parent company of the website.
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the order while hearing a petition moved by a non-governmental organisation, Bytes for All. The petition challenges the ban on Youtube imposed by the previous government over displaying blasphemous material last year.
The government had decided to continue the ban after the Google administration refused to remove the blasphemous material. Almost all Islamic countries had strongly protested the blasphemous videos on the website.
During the hearing, a deputy attorney general told the court that the federal government was willing to lift the ban but blasphemous material was still available on the website. He pointed out that there was no agreement between Pakistan and Google that would enable the country to censor itself.
A representative of Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) told the court that the authority would be able to censor controversial and undesired material over the internet like China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE, in the next four months.
Justice Shah issued a notice to Ministry of Information and Technology and said the minister (Dr Sania Nishtar) may appear personally before the court or depute a responsible official to assist the court on the matter. The judge directed the government to approach Google administration in Singapore and seek their point of view. The judge also asked the government to manage appearance of Google representative in the court on May 17, if possible. The court would resume hearing on May 3. The petitioner had pleaded that the impugned ban infringed the basic right to information. It said a large number of people had been affected by the ban.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2013.