LHC asks govt to submit reply on X closure till April 8

LAHORE: A three-member bench of Lahore High Court (LHC), headed by Chief Justice Alia Neelam, has given the federal government a last chance to submit a reply by April 8 with regard to closure of social media platform, X.

During the hearing, the court remarked that the court would summon head of the cabinet if reply was not submitted within the deadline.

However, PTA’s written reply was submitted to the court. The chief justice told the PTA chairman that the court must be informed about the person responsible for its closure, because the court intended to resolve it.

Justice Ali Zia Bajwa said “if you are unable to stop accidents, you cannot ban vehicles for the purpose. Similarly, if you are unable to stop anti-state content, you cannot close a platform for the purpose”.

The federal government’s lawyer remarked that the interior ministry had a system to close down X, but it could not be determined who was using what. He took the plea that the PTA had formed a committee [to look into the issue]. At this the court remarked whether the committee was formed to deceive the court.

The lawyer stated that the government had no agreement with X, but it has written to the X administration [to block anti-state content]. The court asked why the X administration would bother to reply you when you did not have an agreement with it.

Justice Ali Zia questioned the PTA chairman about use of VPN after banning X in the country, who replied that all X users in Pakistan were using VPN.

Replying to a query from Justice Farooq Haider, the PTA chief said the VPN could not be stopped immediately. The court remarked that if X was closed, how it was working through VPN?

The PTA chairman replied that VPN was used in freelancing. When court asked to what extent VPN was being used for X, he stated that he could not provide exact data immediately.

The chairman stated that if the court would order, the PTA would restore X immediately.

The court remarked that that means the PTA was looking for support to restore it. “You can stop inappropriate use of X, but it cannot be blocked,” remarked the court.