Following a competition in which cartoons and drawings were submitted, the government of Pakistan blocked many websites over what it referred to as blasphemous caricatures. Amongst the websites blocked are Facebook and the popular video-sharing YouTube. This has apparently been done in a bid to stop the flow of blasphemous materials amid countrywide protests. Before the ban on YouTube the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed all the concerned operators in Pakistan to block the website www.facebook.com until further notice. At the time of writing it has been learned that to-date, more than 1,000 websites have now been blocked.
Pakistan is the only Islamic country to have taken this step.
These orders have been issued in compliance with the orders of the Lahore High Court, the highest court of Punjab province. The Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) issued a directive to the PTA to block Facebook and all other internet links displaying sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him.
These decisions against the freedom of expression and right to access to information have been taken due to the pressure of extremist and religious forces in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Facebook members and now over 1,000 websites have been blocked due to the orders of the Lahore High Court. The court took the decision after pressure from 50 lawyers who stormed the court and pressured the judge to decide in their favour.
During the hearing the PTA director told the court that the closure of the websites would damage the national economy. He said the country could lose its internet facilities after blocking access to the websites. He went on to say that the PTA had already blocked links to the controversial webpage which had hosted the competition, instead of blocking the website itself.
The officials remarks infuriated many lawyers present in the courtroom and they told the court that Muslims were ready to suffer any loss to curb blasphemy. The judge asked both parties to sit together, find a solution to the dispute and return to the court after a break. Consultations held in the deputy attorney generals office remained inconclusive and the matter was left for the court to decide.
When the hearing resumed, the judge ordered that the website be blocked until May 31, the next date of the hearing.
It is outrageous that a provincial high court has chosen to uphold the bigoted views of 50 individuals over the rights of the many thousands of Facebook and other websites users in Pakistan. To do so blatantly in the name of preventing freedom of speech makes it even more obnoxious.
Freedom of Expression is a fundamental right regardless of caste, colour and creed. However, it would appear that the Judges of the Lahore High Court, Punjab, have bowed before the pressure from lawyers who were representing one Islamic organisation. The decision proves that the judiciary of Pakistan is not free from religious bigotry, extremism and fanaticism and does not have the courage take a stand purely on the merits of a case.
The decision of the Lahore high court which was approved by the government of Pakistan is a gross violation of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Pakistan is a signatory. Its Article 19 explicitly says that, 1) Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2) Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
The action of the court is also the denial of an individual’s right to have access to information. It takes away the opportunities and freedoms of ordinary citizens to have access to information free from any kind of interference.
The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government and the judiciary to rescind the decision of blocking the 1,000 websites which include Facebook and YouTube and allow the citizens free access without any interference so that they should not be denied their right to information.
There is no doubt that the blasphemous caricatures on some websites are condemnable and the anger among particular religious followers is understandable. However by banning so many websites hundreds of thousands of people are being unjustly punished. It is the people, not the government, nor the courts that should have the right to decide where they choose to get information.
