Islamabad High Court Restrains IMCEW from Blocking Websites

Islamabad High Court Restrains IMCEW from Blocking Websites

On a petition filed by Bolo Bhi, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) restrained the inter-ministerial committee for the evaluation of websites (IMCEW) from blocking the website of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working for the rights of internet users.

Justice Athar Minallah issued the order on a petition filed by ‘Bolo Bhi’. The committee was restrained from issuing any directions to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the website without approval of the court till the next hearing of the petition.

Bolo Bhi in its petition contended that the IMCEW was unconstitutional. The petitioner through its counsel adopted before the court that IMCEW was constituted through an executive order in 2006 and since then it had been issuing orders to take down contents.

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In its eight years of existence, the working of the committee has been non-transparent and dubious to say the least. There is no public record of its members, meetings or directives.

IMCEW issued directives to the PTA which were enforced by the latter through local Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This year, it has been noted that the PTA has been routing IMCEW directives to companies such as Twitter and Facebook to restrict their content in Pakistan. Some of these requests have also been complied with

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Facebook’s most recent transparency report reveals 1,773 pieces of contents were restricted by Facebook in compliance with the requests of the government of Pakistan, not only on grounds of blasphemy but also criticism of the state.

The petition contended that the IMCEW as an executive body had arbitrarily conferred upon itself the powers. It said the committee was prone to political hijacking and pressure and had been used to personal and political ends to stem ‘undesirable’ and dissenting opinion.

There is no law in Pakistan that declares criticism of the government illegal within the country, the petition said, adding that interpreting what constituted criticism of the state did not fall within the ambit of the IMCEW, PTA or anybody in Pakistan for that matter.

It alleged that the IMCEW had become a prime example of arbitrary and ad hoc executive action and abuse of power.
The petition requested the court to declare the IMCEW as illegal and contrary to the Telecom Act and Rules of Business 1973.

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Kanwal Ayub

Kanwal Ayub is a 23rd March Aries | Technology Blogger | Radio Jockey | Avid Photographer | Terrible Singer =P | Pure Punjabi | Kattar Sunni | & a Traveler.

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