A parliamentary panel on Friday directed the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to closely cooperate in dealing with the issue of blasphemous contents on internet. The Senate special committee to 'examine purported grievances against some sections of the society and reach out/engage with the genuinely aggrieved persons to create national cohesion' met here under the chairmanship of Senator Mohammad Ali Saif and asked the PTA to establish a special monitoring cell in this connection.
Briefing the panel, PTA chairman Major-General Amir Azeem Bajwa (retd) said 49,000 links with blasphemous contents have been blocked so far, adding that majority of such website and links are being operated from abroad.
Senator Saif said different social media websites are initiating blasphemous trends and discussions which are not tolerable; therefore, it is needed to check such contents. The committee said there should be formulated such rules and regulations to punish the people promoting blasphemous contents, saying that Islam can't tolerate the insult of any holy prophet. Bajwa told the panel that PTA has blocked more than 39,000 URLs since 2010.
The authority is also trying its best to create awareness on the subject and for achieving this goal is using various methods, including sending text messages via cell phones to inform people that sharing blasphemous content is a crime, he added.
He told the panel that PTA had received thousands of complaints regarding blasphemous content on the internet and the authority had blocked 49,000 web links.
It also blocked about 850,000 websites that had pornographic contents, Bajwa told. He admitted that websites were being hosted on the dark web in Pakistan, adding that it is "not easy to monitor them."
The official further said websites blocked by PTA can be easily accessed through a proxy. He told that the government had instructed the PTA to prepare new rules regarding the usage of social media and the authority will submit the draft soon.
Barrister Saif said the rules should apply to contents that are blasphemous for any religion. He asked the PTA to prepare new rules and assured Bajwa that they will be approved.
Officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also briefed the committee on the matter and said that currently, the agency's cyber-crime division is probing 15 cases. They said that Facebook and Twitter do not respond to most complaints lodged by the FIA.
The officials also informed the panel that the FIA had received 32,000 complaints in the past three years and the agency only has 15 cyber experts on board.
Tackling with blasphemous contents on social media is a huge problem and the regulator is making all-out efforts to deal with it, adding that majority of such websites are being operated from abroad.
The chairman committee said that the government needs to formulate a policy and follow the examples of the UAE and China to block social media networks. He recommended that like these countries, Pakistan should ban such websites as well. He added that the government has tasked PTA to make social media rules which the authority will present soon.