Polling marred by mobile phone service, internet shutdown

ISLAMABAD: The federal government suspended mobile phone and internet services across the country on the day of the general election on Thursday.

Mobile phone services remained affected in different parts of the country and people faced problems due to the closure of mobile networks and the nagging problem persisted even after the polling was closed and counting was underway till late at night. The caretaker government had assured the people that network connectivity would not be affected on the election day, but that promise was not fulfilled when even before the clock struck 8 am — the start of voting time — on February 8, mobile internet services were shut down “temporarily”. This sudden change in the policy of disrupting connectivity troubled all the people linked to elections, voters, political actors, polling agents, observers and reporters.

The general election cost a whopping Rs42 billion, making it the most expensive in the country’s history. This is 26pc more than the 2018 elections. The increase is due to security and other arrangements by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Moreover, since more than 128 million people were voting, it was the biggest election.

A statement from the interior ministry posted on ‘X’ on Thursday said that in response to “recent incidents of terrorism” in the country, cellular networks had been cut off “to maintain the law and order situation and deal with possible threats”. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja said on Thursday the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would not give any instructions to the interior ministry on internet services.

During a chat with journalists outside the ECP offices, the CEC said it was hoped the poll process would be completed peacefully. He pointed out there were incidents of terrorism in Balochistan on Wednesday and that it was the job of the interior ministry and agencies to review the security situation. He made it clear the ECP would not give any instructions to the interior ministry regarding internet services and asked, “Who will be responsible if we ask to open mobile service and any incident of terrorism takes place?”

The CEC explained that where connectivity was an issue, the presiding officer concerned would personally go to the office of relevant returning officer and issue Form 45. He pointed out that once uploaded on EMS, Form 45 would automatically be received wherever services are restored.

Almost all major political parties expressed anger at the suspension of mobile phones and internet services on election day. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lambasted the mobile service shutdown on X, calling it a “severe assault on democracy” and a “cowardly attempt by those in power to stifle dissent, manipulate the election’s outcome and infringe upon the rights of the Pakistani people.” The party urged people with WiFi to remove password protection on their network so that others in the vicinity could access the internet on polling day.

PTI senior leader Senator Ali Zafar wrote to the CEC, “I want to bring into your notice once again that the stoppage and closure of mobile and internet services thoroughout Pakistan is causing serious and severe damage to the holding of free and fair elections”. He termed the CEC statement that the ECP had nothing to do with it simply unacceptable because under the Constitution of Pakistan, “it is exclusively your mandate and responsibility to ensure that elections are conducted freely and fairly”.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the prime ministerial candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), urged on X that mobile phone services “be restored immediately across the country” and said his party would confront the Election Commission and the courts over the issue.

Separately, the PPP, through a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, conveyed its deep concern over the unannounced disruption of internet and mobile network connectivity across Pakistan, saying it was severely impacting the general election.

In a letter to the CJP, In-charge Central Election Cell of PPP Senator Taj Haider said due to the countrywide disruption, voters were unable to access information related to their polling station or coordinate logistics to access the polling stations. “Your Honour may kindly recall that clear orders for not closing internet on polling day were given by the Honourable Islamabad High Court in 2018 and the services have been closed in violation of these orders,” he stated in the letter.

He also forwarded copies of his letter to chief justices of Islamabad High Court (IHC), Lahore High Court (LHC), Sindh High Court (SHC), Peshawar High Court (PHC), Balochistan High Court (BHC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman.

However, Commonwealth Observers Group (COG) head Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan stressed that “casting votes are more important than internet services”. The statement from the former Nigerian president Dr Jonathan, who is leading a 25-member COG delegation comprising journalists and experts, came after the foreign observers visited different polling stations to inspect the ongoing electoral process. The COG delegation visited the polling stations of NA-47 Islamabad and expressed satisfaction over the polling process besides declaring it fair and transparent.

Dr Jonathan, speaking to the media, said that they are satisfied with the polling process. “Before the invention of the internet, we were holding polls and voting is more important than the internet,” he added. He further said, “Voting process does not require internet, however, the suspension of internet services would only create trouble while posting the poll results.”

Meanwhile, NetBlocks, which is a watchdog organisation that monitors cyber-security and the governance of the internet, said the internet service is facing disruption in different cities of Pakistan. It said in a post on ‘X’ that internet service is partially suspended in the wake of the general election in the country and complaints have been received from citizens that they are facing problems of internet service shutdown. Also, Amnesty International slammed the internet shutdown and suspension of the cellular service on election day in Pakistan as a “reckless attack on people’s rights”.

“The decision to suspend telecommunications and mobile internet services on an election day is a blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” Livia Saccardi, Interim Deputy Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, said in a post on the micro-blogging site ‘X’.

“It is reckless to impede access to information as people head out to polling stations on the heels of devastating bomb blasts and what has been an intense crackdown on the opposition in the lead up to the elections in the country,” Saccardi added.

The Amnesty called on the authorities to adopt a rights-respecting approach and urgently lift all blanket restrictions on access to the internet. “Unwarranted restrictions on dissemination of information, despite reassurances to the contrary from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Election Commission of Pakistan, are in breach of people’s human rights at this critical time in Pakistan,” Saccardi stated.

Meanwhile, Access Now, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the #KeepItOn coalition also strongly condemned the caretaker government’s suspension of mobile services nationwide, demanding that full internet access be reinstated immediately. “With millions of people in Pakistan relying on the internet for essential information needed to cast their vote, the government’s disproportionate action jeopardises democracy. People’s right to freely and fairly choose their elected representatives must be safeguarded,” it said in a statement.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also demanded immediate restoration of internet and cellular services across the country.

In a post on social media platform X, it said: “The ongoing disruption to services has occurred despite the Sindh High Court’s direction to the caretaker government to ensure uninterrupted internet services on polling day.”

“With the PTA claiming it has received no instructions from the government to block internet services, there is a worrying lack of transparency about where, when and how long the disruption will continue, thereby affecting voters’ right to information and potentially the transmission of results,” the HRCP said. Nighat Dad — a lawyer who runs the not-for-profit Digital Rights Foundation — has said the outage of mobile and internet services “is an attack on the democratic rights of Pakistanis”.

She told AFP. “Shutting down mobile phone services is not a solution to national security concerns. If you shut down access to information you create more chaos.”