{"id":67643,"date":"2024-03-05T11:28:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T11:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ihc-issues-notices-to-info-ministry-pta-on-plea-challenging-ban-on-social-media-site-x\/"},"modified":"2024-03-05T11:28:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T11:28:05","slug":"ihc-issues-notices-to-info-ministry-pta-on-plea-challenging-ban-on-social-media-site-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ihc-issues-notices-to-info-ministry-pta-on-plea-challenging-ban-on-social-media-site-x\/","title":{"rendered":"IHC issues notices to info ministry, PTA on plea challenging \u2018ban\u2019 on social media site X"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the information ministry on a plea challenging the \u201cban\u201d on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n<p>Access to X has been disrupted in many areas of Pakistan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1814999\">since February 17<\/a>, when former Rawal\u00adpindi commissioner Liaquat Chattha <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1814959\">accused<\/a> the chief election commissioner and chief justice of Pakistan of being involved in rigging the February 8 general elections.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Feb 29, monitoring website Downdetector <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/netblocks\/status\/1762855994374168873\">said<\/a> \u201cmetrics shows that X\/Twitter remains restricted in Pakistan despite brief moments of availability\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1817130\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Rights bodies and journalists\u2019 organisations have condemned the muzzling of social media, while internet service providers have also lamented losses due to disruptions. The United States had also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1816152\/govt-formation-pakistans-internal-matter-says-us\">called on<\/a> Pakistan last month to lift restrictions on social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>The Sindh High Court (SHC) last month <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1816019\">expressed displeasure<\/a> on the disruption and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1816272\">instructed<\/a> the PTA to restore X services \u201cwithout any interruption or disruption\u201d. However, services remain disrupted sporadically.<\/p>\n<p>Today, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq took up a plea challenging the restriction on X across the country. Lawyers Sardar Masroof and Amna Ali appeared before the court on behalf of the petitioner.<\/p>\n<p>At the outset of the hearing, Justice Farooq asked if X was down, to which Masroof replied: \u201cThe government has imposed a ban on X since February 17.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The IHC chief justice then noted that the SHC had already issued an order on the matter. However, the counsel informed the court here that a contempt case was being heard over the failure to implement the SHC\u2019s directives.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the IHC issued notices to the respondents, including the information ministry and the PTA, and adjourned the hearing till next week.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"the-plea\" href=\"#the-plea\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>The plea<\/h2>\n<p>The petition was filed on Monday by Ehtisham Abbasi, a resident of Islamabad, and named the information ministry and the PTA as the respondents in the case.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1818749\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It urged the high court to issue directives to the respondents to \u201cimmediately lift the ban on X (Twitter) access in the interest of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It argued that the \u201cact of the respondents against journalists particularly in the recent past is highly violative\u201d of Article 19 of the <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/na.gov.pk\/uploads\/documents\/1549886415_632.pdf\">Constitution<\/a> (freedom of speech).<\/p>\n<p>Referring to the \u201cvery important fundamental right\u201d as provided under Article 14 of the Constitution (inviolability of dignity of man, etc), the plea said that the \u201cliberty of a person\u201d was a \u201cpivotal right and falls squarely within the ambit of right to life and dignity of a person\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The petition asserted that the \u201cimpugned inaction of the respondents is deliberate, arbitrary, mala fide, without lawful authority\u201d and \u201cderogatory\u201d to the provisions of the Constitution and the fundamental rights guaranteed therein.<\/p>\n<p>It added that the \u201cimpugned inaction is patently void, ab initio, a contrived an untenable, misplaced, misdirected, unfounded, erroneous, contrary to the law and facts on the record\u201d, and was liable to be set aside by the IHC.<\/p>\n<p>The petitioner further argued that the disruption of X \u201csuffers from serious legal infirmities as the same is not sustainable in view of the settled law\u201d and that \u201ca number of other constitutional and statutory rights have been infringed and circumvented\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the information ministry on a plea challenging the \u201cban\u201d on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Access to X has been disrupted in many areas of Pakistan since February 17, when former Rawal\u00adpindi commissioner Liaquat Chattha accused the chief [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/0513065950dd7b9.jpg?r=132657","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}