The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will resume the hearing of multiple petitions filed against the implementation of social media rules on Thursday (today).
A single bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah will hear the case. During the previous hearing, the IHC Chief Justice had directed concerned parties to submit their briefs to the notified “Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards), Rules 2020.”
The court had also appointed the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), Sadaf Baig, Nighat Dad, and Fariha Aziz to assist the court in the matter.
On 23 November 2021, Additional Attorney General (AAG), Qasim Wadud, informed the court that the attorney general had taken the stakeholders in confidence on the social media rules as per the court’s directives.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had constituted a committee, under Federal Minister for Human Rights, Dr. Shireen Mazari, to review the social media rules. He said that the committee held consultative sessions with over 30 stakeholders.
“The committee had also held discussions with managements of leading social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and other international forums in connection with the rules,” he added.
During the course of hearing, Justice Minallah had asked as to why the video-sharing app, TikTok, had been suspended in Pakistan.
The AAG had told the court that the ban on TikTok had been lifted.
The IHC Chief Justice had remarked that imposing a ban on social network applications was not a permanent solution, adding that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) misused the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act.
