Chief Justice Takes Suo Motu Notice of Blasphemous Material Over Internet

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Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has taken suo motu notice of blasphemous content available on the internet and has sought a report from chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) within a week.

It merits mentioning here that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is currently operating without any Chairman and the Members.

According to Express Tribune the notice by Chief Justice was taken on an application of a United Kingdom-based Pakistani, Barrister Amjad Malik, who drew the attention of apex court towards the ever-increasing blasphemous websites, which are easily accessible over internet, and are impacting the minds, the lives and liberties of mainstream Muslim population.

Malik is said to have registered the complaint through the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Malik had pleaded for necessary directions to be issued to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the Government of Pakistan and the relevant authority to ensure the blockade of objectionable material available over internet in the name of freedom of expression and take meaningful steps for the international convents to protect the name of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H).

In a related news, Anusha Rehman, newly appointed IT Minister yesterday said that Pakistan will approach Google for the removal of blasphemous videos from YouTube, and threatened that incompliance may result into a complete ban on Google in Pakistan.


  • Google should now listen to our Govt. as it not good for both our country and for Google because there are also useful and Islamic things that people search for. It would affect those users as well.

    • Google is 100% not standing in the way of us searching for Islam-related things on the web or Youtube. Our government is stopping us.

        • What is stopping Pakistan to block the access of anti-Islamic videos? (and by anti-Islamic videos I mean just the particular videos not the whole website i.e, youtube)

          By blocking the whole website , they are also blocking 1000’s of Islamic videos just for the sake of few anti-islamic.

          • No one other than YouTube can block the access of a particular video in a region or country.

            If a filtration system — such as one in UAE — blocks a particular video then chances are that it may get replicated again. Simply by again uploading it on the website.

            YouTube, on other hands, this technology which can identify the content of Videos and can block all similar videos — currently uploaded or all future uploads — with-in a specific region.

        • Completely unrelated issue.

          And nothing is stopping Google except for

          1. Is it Google’s obligation to do this job? If you say “yes” then answer me one more personal question: you use Disqus for this blog comments. Do you HONESTLY believe no one posts anti-Islamic comments using Disqus on other blogs? And if they do, why do you care about Google and not Disqus? Obviously you’re not asking if anything is stopping Disqus from hosting anti-Islamic comments.

          2. who will identify such videos? Is Google supposed to hire a few hundred Islamic scholars and pay their salaries to do the job?

          3. What about videos that one sect of Islam considers anti-Islamic but not others?

          4. Why should the videos or any other content be blocked in Pakistan? I KEEP ASKING ONE QUESTION AND YOU NEVER ANSWER: Why do you want to prevent Pakistanis from RESPONDING to such content? Is your opinion of Pakistanis Muslims and especially scholars so low that you do not believe we are up to the task???

          (And no, by “responding” I do not mean hacking or defacing or such stupid attacks. I mean responding using teachings of Quran and Our Prophet.)

          • You sir deserve a cookie. Bravo.

            Just because you see crap lying all over the place, doesn’t mean you have to trudge right through it. You can simply ignore it by walking around it. Its as simple as that. Use your god damn common sense.

            • Which leads us back to the question: why did they block it for them and not us? And all we’ve seen in the local media suggests that the other countries asked them to block it, but we asked for it to be removed.

              Therefore, we suffer.

          • Wow, that was irrelevant question — funny enough.

            And to let you know about a simple principle of Web 2.0 — It is host’s responsibility to act on content that is flagged by users.

            If you don’t get me, here is it in more simple words: On websites, where content is uploaded by users, the website owner is bound to act (based on website’s TOS) if a video is reported. That’s exactly how youtube blocks anti-Israel content from its servers.

            P.S. Don’t drag discussion and simply tell me,

            What is stopping Google to block the access of anti-Islamic videos in Pakistan? — When it has blocked the similar videos in other countries.

            • “And to let you know about a simple principle of Web 2.0 — It is host’s responsibility to act on content that is flagged by users.”
              Responsibility to act according to their terms of service and local laws. Neither of which require Google to remove that video from Youtube. You say it should be removed, Google’s lawyers say it doesn’t, NO ONE HAS SUED THEM IN US COURTS, which means Google’s lawyers are correct. No matter how you feel about the issue.

              I can only think of ONE reason why Google has not blocked it, and that is because our government has not asked them to under correct channels. Why don’t YOU tell us what YOU THINK is the reason. Which may or may not be the real reason, but since neither you nor I work at Google, NEITHER OF US IS DISCUSSING FACTS, ONLY SPECULATING.
              And I will note that you have not answered any of my questions, point by point. Don’t run, stand and answer.

  • Pakistanis have officially lost it. When will they learn that you can’t censor the internet. Also, its about time this Chief Justice goes home. He’s had his fun.

  • welcome to NAYA PAKISTAN
    lol i would love to see Anusha Rehman block google……. would be fun seriously
    Btw i feel like she is related to Mr Rehman Malik in some way maybe shes his daughter or wife.
    Banana apple affairs

  • 1) A few days ago, some high court ordered IT ministry to initiate legal proceedings with Google. In the meantime, the court was willing to give legal cover and guarantee to Google. The purpose was that they block the video right away while working on legal agreements.

    2) The petition of that UK citizen is only admitted for hearing in pakistan. I am sure he shall get the same treatment as that of Canadian Tahir ul Qadri. (I respect him as a scholar, but he should not overstep his welcome).

    3) If we want to make a difference, block Google’s ads on ISP level. Individuals can install ad blocker extensions.

    4) I occasionally want to hear naats, and frankly, there is not even one website that has proper streaming speed, good sound quality, and a large cache of naats. Interestingly, songs and naats exist on the same site no matter where i go. Isn’t it disrespectful to our prophet? How can be a naat khawan and naacha / gawayya be given the same place?

    5) A ‘popular’ Islamic country razed very dear (I emphasize) and historical Islamic sites over time in the name of extension projects. Yet they did not touch the clock tower. I have not seen any protests so far by ‘us’. Ummah is either asleep or dead.

    6) If Pakistan implements the so called filtering mechanism, it shall be used just like China does. All this drama is being created in the name of Islam to actually achieve sinister objectives. No one shall be able to freely comment on politicians. Frauds and scams wont be exposed as often. Have we forgotten Saleem Shahzad? A traitor dictator gets VIP treatment, a common journalist gets – grave.
    If theres a razor in a monkey’s hand, it shall not only injure me but its own throat as well.

    7) We are a country which was ransacked by Indian spam bots for months. Our inept and ‘capable’ ‘protectors’ failed to even identify any such thing. F-Secure did that for us. Still, we have no clue what to do next or how to prevent ourselves.

    • Let’s do something practically. I can help you to build a naat only website.
      I own a small software house and a hosting company.

      • Man you “software house” people still don’t understand. The STRENGTH of youtube is not the hosting space or bandwidth for the site or whatever. The strength is the CONTENT.

        Sure you can build your websites, but where will you get the naats from????

          • “People” are what make social networking and such sites successful. The strength of YouTube, Wikipedia, Google etc. is their global nature and that means there will always be someone, somewhere who is offended by what someone else posts, factual or not. The benefits of a “global village” outweigh these manageable issues.

            Unfortunately, we’re still stuck in the dark ages and still have an isolationist mentality. The days of small discoveries or inventions that will allow only your particular family, tribe or kingdom to prosper are long gone. We’re talking about sharing the collective knowledge of all mankind here.

            Please understand that the Internet isn’t just a tool, but a new way of thinking. And maybe try to become part of the global community.

            • You are right Mr. Ahmad, The material on some sites offends other religion believers too. All religions should be respected for the sake of peace in this world.

              • It is easy to say that but what does it mean in practical terms? How will you respect Christianity which clearly has the concept of Trinity which we don’t believe in?

  • Well now i have guessed that 3G is supreme dangerous to the Pakistan security and existence…Hope someone would too apply to court to block it…

    P.S Please Chief Justice STOP your dramas of suo motu notices…you are another master corrupt person…You have shown your real face by DOING NOTHING against HAJJ CORRUPTION CASE/ Ephedrine quota scandal..

    why after passing years you have come to realize that it must be stopped?

    • Agreed. I find it blasphemous that these people set criminals and terrorists free. Terrorists that use sacred texts and people for mass murder of innocents. It should be they who are tried for blasphemy.

  • The petitioner is very close friend of CJ and Nawaz Sharif. Photos of both are openly available on social media and was shown in program Khara Sach.

    This is totally political, Chief justice wants to stop Social Media (FB) so that their corrupt faces can be hidden.


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