Mobile operators on Monday deferred implementing a ban on nearly 1,700 "obscene" words from text messages, saying they were seeking further clarification from the telecoms authority. The list, including words from "quickie" to "fairy" to "Jesus Christ" and obtained by AFP, was distributed on November 14 with operators given seven days to comply, but has met with widespread derision and a threat of legal action.
Although the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has previously blocked websites deemed pornographic or offensive to Islam, it is the first time the country has sought to censor text messages. "Obviously there are concerns and we have some reservations," said Omar Manzur, spokesman for Mobilink, the country's leading telecoms operator.
"This regulation will be implemented only after mutual agreement between the PTA and us. We should wait until the end of this discussion," Manzur told AFP. An official at one telecoms firm told AFP that filtering the system could degrade the quality of network services and greatly inconvenience subscribers if text messages were not delivered due to the wrong choice of words.
A spokesman for Telenor company said he was "not in a position to say when this (ban) will be implemented". "If this is a regulation and a law then we have to implement it but so far we are in discussions," Sohaib Mustafa, the Telenor spokesman, told AFP. In addition to more conventional obscenities, other words and phrases on the list of 1,695 terms, issued in English and Urdu, include "monkey crotch", "athlete's foot", "idiot" and "damn", as well as "deeper", "four twenty", "go to hell", "harder", "looser" and "no sex".
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