PTA chief concedes ‘firewall’ being upgraded

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Maj Gen (R) Hafeezur Rehman admitted on Wednesday that upgradation of the National Firewall System (NFS) or Web Management System (WMS) was under way for controlling or removing contents from social media, following directions received from executives or courts.

He said the PC-1 for the NFS upgradation was approved in March 2019, when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was ruling the country. He also said that social media messaging service X, formerly twitter, was banned for not complying with the directives issued by the interior ministry, as there was a defined mechanism to slap a ban or remove content on social media under the law of the land. Under the Web Management System, it is the mandate of PTA to comply with the orders of the executive or superior courts and cited examples that they removed contents related to pornography or blasphemy.

However, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology unanimously rejected slowing down of internet or banning social media platforms. They directed the Ministry of IT to come up with exact estimates of losses faced by the IT sector, in collaboration with the sector specialists and Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA). The NA Standing Committee on IT & Telecom held its meeting under the chairmanship of Aminul Haq here at the Ministry of IT on Wednesday. The PTA chairman briefed the committee and said that the NFS or WMS was installed in the 1990s and there was a requirement to upgrade it with time. He said that the upgradation of WMS was approved in March 2019, but it could not be done due to scarcity of funds.

It is called a firewall in China and it is known as Web Management System generally. During the PTI government, it was called National Firewall System in 2019. “I am saying on oath we have done nothing to slow down the internet,” he added. He said shutting down contents of any social media platforms occurred 84 times in India, 18 times in Iran and one time in Pakistan during 2022, while in 2023 it occurred seven times in Pakistan, 116 times in India and 34 times in Iran. Pakistan is nowhere standing near to shutting down contents. The PTA, he said, adhered to instructions given by the government or courts. He said that 97,000 sites were blocked.

Opposition Leader in the NA and PTI stalwart Omar Ayub raised the question whether the intelligence agencies, such as ISI, MI, IB and Special Branch, possessed powers to bypass the PTA and ingress into the domain of others. He specifically asked for tapping phones by the intelligence agencies. He claimed that Imran Khan had rejected installation of a firewall during his tenure. Omar Ayub also asked about the parameters based on which the PTA used to comply with orders of executives. Some ruling party MNAs also stated that it was not a good practice to malign intelligence agencies and said that they were also victimised during the last tenure of PTI when bogus FIRs were registered against them.

However, the PTA chairman shared specific dates of approval for installing a firewall and added that it could not be implemented during the PTI tenure. When this government came to power, upgradation of WMS was implemented. “I have given the vote to PTI’s Asad Qaiser as I belong to KP province,” the PTA chairman publicly declared during the proceedings, adding that the firewall was installed in the 1990s, so it had nothing to do with the recent happenings in the country.

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT also sought from the ministries, departments concerned details of powers of secret agencies to trespass the authority and domain of other departments.

The PTA chairman claimed that there was no slowdown of internet in the country as one submarine cable got affected due to which the internet got slowed down. However, he made a startling disclosure that India’s Modi spent $13 billion for promoting the ICT sector in the last three years, but in Pakistan, there was not a penny to utilise on development projects.

He also endorsed a proposal given by the MNAs for asking the government to come up with comprehensive legislation to handle the increasing trend of social media and the internet through a combined law instead of applying different laws and adopting a piecemeal approach.

About the launch of 5G technology, the PTA chairman said they were targeting to accomplish the launch by April 2025, keeping in view the requirements of PPRA rules. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sold out its spectrum at $95,000 and Bangladesh at $6.5 million while in Pakistan the last spectrum was auctioned at $29 per MHz. The NA panel recommended for adopting approach of fair competitive price and implementing the Bangladeshi model.