So ProPakistani’s reports were true about what interior minister Rehman Malik was trying to articulate in his yesterday’s press conference where he ended up saying if Google and Youtube don’t cooperate in hunting down terrorists, the government reserves the right to ban them.
Who clarified this? The man himself posted this a while ago on his twitter page:
This update from the very minister came forth at 1:57 AM (Pakistan Standard Time) which tells us that the minister is not sleeping at this hour and banana Google kept bugging him.
Like they say, it’s never too late. Let’s thank him for the clarification which was much needed of course because the entire media interpreted it in the other way. ARY even went ahead to report that some case was going to be registered against Google Pakistan’s “administrator.” Well that was a clear depiction of media’s sensationalism.
For those who didn’t follow yesterday’s saga on the topic, Government of Pakistan actually wants INTERPOL to play it’s role in convincing Google to start accepting Pakistani court orders for retrieval of any data from Google’s servers. (Google currently asks for American court orders, which obviously isn’t viable for Pakistani authorities)
But all this (miscommunication from Mr. Malik) we had to face the consequences! Many saw this as an attempt to censor free speech and this gave a reason to Pakistan-bashing foreign press to further sensationalize the issue.
I mean look at Indian papers today, they are all filled with “Pakistan to shutdown Google” headlines and what not. But that’s not it, few observers went ahead to think that Pakistan wants to ban US companies to open and clear the way for the Chinese players to come and invest in Pakistan.
Imagine Baidu replacing Google in our lives…eh? But seriously, this seems more like a conspiracy theory because I am now convinced that ProPakistani’s report was right that Rehman Malik couldn’t articulate what he wanted to say. So it’s like he wanted to say apple, but ended up saying banana.
Unfortunately, who takes Rehman Malik’s talks anyways? Yes, this is unfortunate because he’s supposed to be the most series man in these challenging and troubling times of fight against terrorism. And this man tends to make headlines of blunders once a week.
I think I should control my emotions and rather than banging my head against the wall on this, let me try to get this straighten for our Interior Minister.
Dear Sir, instead of making a clear statement, instead of telling the world the real problem, instead of identifying that Google is operating without a local office and doesn’t come under your law, without hinting that Google isn’t accepting your court orders (unlike Hotmail and Yahoo), Sir, you have earned nothing but bad name for the country.
But I think I am wasting my time by giving you the benefit of doubt since you’re tech illiterate! I think you just randomly say stuff and attempt on hit and trial rule just to look busy, am I right?
