{"id":87170,"date":"2024-11-16T22:20:14","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T22:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/senate-committee-to-meet-on-vpn-restrictions-despite-it-ministrys-absence\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T22:20:14","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T22:20:14","slug":"senate-committee-to-meet-on-vpn-restrictions-despite-it-ministrys-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/senate-committee-to-meet-on-vpn-restrictions-despite-it-ministrys-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate committee to meet on VPN restrictions despite IT ministry\u2019s absence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>PPP Senator Palwasha Khan called for a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications on Monday, with or without the IT ministry, to discuss the blocking of \u201cillegal VPNs\u201d across Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The use of virtual private networks has surged in Pakistan as people are using them to access X, which has been banned since February, and a host of other sites. Authorities claim the software is also being used to bypass restrictions on pornographic content.<\/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:250px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1872734\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>On Wednesday, the PTA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1872252\">said<\/a> that VPN usage would be restricted in the future to curb access to pornographic content, following a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1871473\/reports-emerge-of-nationwide-vpn-access-restrictions-throttling\">disruption<\/a> that rendered VPNs dysfunctional across the country on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the authority claimed it had so far blocked 100,183 URLs containing blasphemous content, as well as 844,008 pornographic websites<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, citing the use by terrorists to \u201cfacilitate violent activities\u201d and to \u201caccess pornographic and blasphemous content\u201d, the interior ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1872561\/interior-ministry-demands-vpns-blockage-claims-it-is-used-by-terrorists-to-facilitate-violent-activities\">asked<\/a> the telecommunication authority to block \u201cillegal VPNs\u201d across Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>While speaking on <em>DawnNewsTV<\/em> programme \u2018<em>Doosra Rukh<\/em> with Nadir Guramani\u2019 yesterday, the Senate committee chairperson Palwasha Khan said that as an \u201cextraordinary measure\u201d, the senate standing committee would carry out a meeting even if the interior ministry would not partake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very upsetting that I have called for a meeting of the IT committee on November 18 and the ministry has written to me for the second time that they were unavailable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>However, the PPP leader said she would call a meeting regardless of whether the IT committee took part in it or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will present our reservations regarding their performance and critically evaluate it as well as to why do they not want to come?\u201d the Senator said.<\/p>\n<p>Khan said that the \u201chighest body in Senate\u201d had called on the IT ministry several times for a response, however, the ministry has stated that they were not available.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat engagements do you have?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the internet in your country is not working. When jobs of the people in your country are being affected, people have been separated from each other and the world [\u2026] you have separate engagements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather than coming and clearing up the matter [\u2026] if you are facing some difficulty then tell us,\u201d she said, adding that the senate SC will conduct a meeting without the ministry on November 18.<\/p>\n<p>While responding to what would satisfy the PPP senator as a response from the interior ministry, Khan said: \u201cI will only be satisfied when they come and give us an answer but they are not ready to come in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Senator said that whether the committee allowed the ban or not was a separate matter altogether.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUntil our ministry tells us the official position, they don\u2019t tell us about the condition, be it in-camera, until then what assessment can we give,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have written to us that we as a ministry are not available,\u201d she said, terming them as an excuse to not answer.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"pta-streamlines-vpn-registration-for-organisations-freelancers\" href=\"#pta-streamlines-vpn-registration-for-organisations-freelancers\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>PTA streamlines VPN registration for organisations, freelancers<\/h2>\n<p>Separately, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) decided to streamline the VPN registration for organisations and freelancers.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement, entities such as \u201csoftware houses, call centres, banks, embassies, and freelancers\u201d could now register their VPNs online through PTA\u2019s official website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMembers of the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) can also avail this facility,\u201d the statement said, adding that registration involved \u201ccompleting an online form and providing basic details\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said that freelancers must submit documentation of verification from the project or company they are working with, adding that any individual requiring a VPN for commercial purposes could apply under the \u201cfreelancer\u201d category.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PPP Senator Palwasha Khan called for a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications on Monday, with or without the IT ministry, to discuss the blocking of \u201cillegal VPNs\u201d across Pakistan. The use of virtual private networks has surged in Pakistan as people are using them to access X, which has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87171,"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\/11\/16154418e241ce2.jpg?r=154504","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87170","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=87170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}