ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday lashed out at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) over the recently approved new social media rules.
During the hearing, The Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah said that the PTA should take into accounts the doubts and objections raised by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) regarding the social media rules.
Recently, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had approved new rules for social media titled, “Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2020” (RBUOC).
On the occasion of today’s hearing, the PTA lawyer started to give an example of India, Justice Athar Minallah restrained him and said if India doing something wrong, does that give Pakistan the reason to do the same? who had proposed these new rules and which authority approved them? the Judge questioned.
He said, “If these rules discourage criticism, it will also discourage accountability. No government or law and order are above criticism. Criticism should be encouraged and not discouraged,” he added.
The PBC lawyer said that some clauses of the rules give the impression that they are unconstitutional. The PTA lawyer replied that letters were written to both the PBC and Islamabad Bar Council for their suggestions.
The IHC has directed PTA to make sure that the rules do not contradict Articles 19 and 19A and adjourned the hearing till December 18.
Earlier, the incumbent government formulated a new social media policy in which social media companies will have to establish offices and database servers in Pakistan and social media companies will be required to submit information such as subscriber information, traffic data, and content data to a designated investigation agency when sought.
The approved rules have sparked anger and condemnation from stakeholders, including internet service providers as well as digital rights activists, who have termed them as draconian and a violation of cyber laws of the country.
