LHC Directs to Formulate a Way for Blocking Blasphemous Videos on YouTube

YouTubeLahore High Court today directed the concerned authorities to assess and explore the technological ability to block the blasphemous videos on YouTube, reported Express Tribune.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, hearing a petition seeking the restoration of YouTube, remarked that the reopening of the website was linked to the technological ability of the ministry and PTA to block controversial content on the sites.

When PTA and MoIT expressed its inability to block specific content on YouTube, court directed Mr. Waseem Tauqeer, a PTA Director General, to hold a meeting with the petitioner as well as representatives of Ministry of IT and experts in order to assess and explore the state of technological ability available in the country.

It was said that this meeting should be held before next hearing, that is on July 27th, 2013. It was further directed that DG PTA will place the minutes of the meeting on record before the next date of the hearing and shall also personally appear before the court to render his assistance.

Earlier, the ministry informed the court that Google was not interested to join the proceedings, despite the fact that court had issued notices to Google Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd on its previous hearing on April 26.

The court expressed its regret over the attitude of Google and remarked that Google had not informed the court regarding its inability to join the proceedings.

The counsel for the petitioner said that there were several technologies available that could help block controversial content and websites from YouTube.


  • God Bless “Bytes for All” NGO who started all this.

    But PTA is keep on lingering by way of technical issues saying that “its not possible to ban specific content”. Talk about proficiency and competency of our highest telecom authority.

    • The PTA isn’t wrong. There’s no way for them to block any youtube url that is accessed using https secure protocol. https is encrypted, so they can’t even see which url the browser is trying to access.

      • They can just sign an agreement with youtube like KSA and UAE and Malaysia have is it really that hard??

        Both parties seem to want to drag this on and on and on with no result, but at least this will keeping people in their seats that they are working on it :)

        • Which both parties? Google isn’t “dragging” anything along, they’re simply waiting for our government to make the right moves.

  • Confused what will be right Reaction to all these YouTube related banal news in Purestani media…. Whether to Laugh, or to Cry out Loud!!! Saare ke saare hee Naive & retarded hain… Judiciary is taking the Mickey out of it self.. while Gov’t is already doing Stand-up Comedy marathon from past 1 year…. Alas!!!!

  • This drama has become so ridiculous, its not even attention worthy.

    PTA & the GOVT are trying to be attention whores.

    As for me, I couldn’t care less whether they open it or ban it completely. I’ve already switched over to a more “permanent” solution to this problem.

    Good riddance to you all.

  • PTA is urging people to use proxy software and other means to open which leads their system vulnerable to virus and other spywares.

    Take example of VPN Hotspot shield. Do a search on google on VPN hot spot shield. The legitimate search result s on number 7 or 8 on page search rank and other results are fully of fake software full of malicious code.

    So the bottom line is that “Jis jis jo proxy software ka nahi bhee pata thaa uss ko bhe pata chal gia hai”

    I see people laptop and pc full of proxy software and jukeware only to open youtube.

  • let me just mention that I was born in Oman and lived nearly a decade in the U.S. so It surprises me to no extent that the alleged democratic representatives of this country have failed to learn the meaning of democracy even after 20 years past Zia Ul Haq’s dictatorship followed by military intervention of Parvaiz Musharraf and his contribution to bringing Pakistan into the digital era. Freedom of expression, Freedom of speech, Freedom of information and privacy of individuals are all fundamental rights guaranteed to under the definition of a democratic government. the governments attempt to police the internet and blocking of internet (regardless of whether they are blocking explicit traffic or political) is essentially a breach of every civil right afforded to the people of a democratic nation. following the offensive content posted on youtube a small faction of the people decided to blame the government for what was posted not taking into account that government had no jurisdiction in the matter as people could block the content themselves, that was all the excuse the government needed to take control of the internet and declare themselves the spiritual guardians of the people. I was opposed to the string of bans that occurred nearly 4 years ago and had commented that the ignorant people who had allowed this to happen had opened a pandora’s box and that the government will escalate the abuse of power over the internet. Much to my dismay I was right….we are at the verge of becoming a police state.

    The government is now praising Saudia arab and China’s oppressive surveillance and censorship practice in court of law with intent of caging the human rights of the Pakistani people. just to put that in context for the common people who are saying “so what?”: the government of China and Saudi arab have secret police that spy on all civilians in their country and any one found making statements of condemnation against government policy or any action considered illegal even questionable are simply spirited away to prisons even if it was in the privacy of their own home and without intent to harm anyone.

    today every pakistani is threatened by this very act of government sanctioned terror. If Pakistani people regardless of their faith and opinion do not unite to support internet freedom, they will find themselves fearing for their lives from the government itself one day this is not something anyone should take lightly.


  • Get Alerts

    Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


    ProPakistani Community

    Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



    >