Senate panel slates arbitrary shutdown of internet

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication has expressed serious concerns over connectivity issues across various regions of Pakistan and strongly disapproved of the arbitrary shutdown of internet services without justification.

The committee met with Senator Palwasha Zai Khan in the chair here at the Old Pips Hall, Parliament Lodges. The chairperson along with other members pointed out deficiencies in the monitoring mechanisms and criticised the lack of clarity surrounding internet shutdowns despite a detailed briefing by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman on disruptions.

Senator Palwasha remarked that blocking specific information and shutting down the internet entirely were fundamentally different actions, asserting that a complete internet shutdown was unjustifiable. She further highlighted a report published in a newspaper which alleged losses in billions due to internet disruptions. Senator Kamran Murtaza added that such shutdowns appeared to be politically motivated rather than technical decisions, emphasising the need to depoliticise the process.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) secretary acknowledged that internet shutdowns have significant impacts and emphasised the need to address public perceptions surrounding them. The panel chairperson reiterated that such perceptions arise for a reason and called on the ministry to devise policies to tackle the negative narrative effectively. However, the ministry denied the claims, with senior officials clarifying that the national outages referenced in the news occurred only during elections.

PTA Chairman Maj Gen (Retd) Hafeezur Rehman said that whenever a letter from the Ministry of Interior comes, the internet is blocked, and the practice was going on before his assuming the charge. While giving a briefing, he said that 500 complaints of social media content are being received daily. The PTA requests social media platforms to block content, on which the platforms block 80 percent of the content.

Senator Kamran Murtaza said: “If it is not written in the law, how can you block the internet? Where in the act is it written to block the internet in a particular area?”

The Legal Member of the ministry said that the act does not clearly mention any particular area. The PTA chairman said that it is written in the rules that the Ministry of Interior can give instructions to the PTA, and if this is wrong, why has the government been shutting down the internet for nine years? “I can tell you the date and time when the internet was shut down, the internet and social media applications were shut down.”

He said: “All of you have been in the government at one time or another since 2016. Whenever a letter from the Ministry of Interior comes, the internet is shut down.” He added that the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Interior can give a final legal opinion in this regard.

Senator Humayun Mohmand said that was not the job of the ministry to tell the Supreme Court that this thing was not in the Act or rules as rules only mention the content.

On this, the IT ministry special secretary said that all online content is blocked only by shutting down the internet. The PTA chairman said: “We have taken a stand on the issue of VPN shutdown and will not allow it to be shut down, while the registration process of VPN service providers was started on December 19, and two internet service providers have applied for a license. It is hoped that a large number of applications will come.”

He said that seven submarine cables are coming to Pakistan. One submarine cable is coming under the name of Africa, and connectivity with this cable will be done this year, while 4 more submarine cables are being connected in the coming years. “Sharks cannot eat submarine cables. We are at 97th place in terms of internet speed.”

The PTA chairman said that social media applications are shut down based on orders from the Supreme Court and high court.

Later, the standing committee summoned officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Law. The panel directed that legal position on the rules framed under PECA Act 2016, specifically in the light of outage of internet, may be sought from the Law Division and report be shared with the committee. Additionally, the committee reviewed plans to enhance the country’s IT exports.