ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) acknowledged that internet blocking was a “legal grey area” and urged the interior and law ministries to provide justification for its legitimacy.
Retired Maj-Gen Hafeezur Rehman told the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology on Wednesday that internet shutdowns have been occurring since 2016 and that only recently has their legality been questioned.
He went on to say that a final legal opinion on this issue must be provided by the ministries of interior and law.
The telecom regulator’s chief was questioned by the committee members during the hearing over the practice of cutting off internet services, namely in response to directives from the Ministry of Interior.
The PTA chief asserts that two businesses have applied for VPN licenses and that the law and interior ministries should provide justification for the action’s legitimacy.
Senators Kamran Murtaza and Humayun Mohmand raised concerns about the laws that control social media and internet service blocking.
Senator Murtaza questioned the legitimacy of these measures, posing the question of what legislation gave the PTA the authority to censor the internet.
In response, the PTA chairman emphasized that the law did not specifically call for the blocking of internet services in any given location, but that the rules did permit the Interior Ministry to order the regulator to prohibit content or services.
The parliamentary committee should be given a clear legislative foundation for such activities, according to Senator Murtaza.
Senator Palwasha Khan, the committee’s chairman, also voiced grave worries about Pakistan’s poor internet speeds and the murky legal issues around content restriction and internet shutdowns.
The committee was told that the only way to increase internet speed was to expand the fiber optic cable network.
The committee was informed that ensuring fiber expansion is the government’s responsibility.
Mr. Rehman also acknowledged that until there were major upgrades made to the digital infrastructure, the internet speed would continue to be poor.
He emphasized that increasing internet speed required “fiberization,” or the growth of fiber optic networks.
In order to solve the problem of poor internet connections, Senator Khan emphasized the urgent need for improved digital infrastructure, especially the growth of fiber optic networks.
blocking a VPN
The PTA chairman stressed that he had not approved the closing of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in response to a question concerning restrictions on them.
He added that two businesses have sought for licenses since the agency started the process of registering VPN service providers on December 19.
In order to address the issue of what authorities refer to as unregistered VPNs, the regulator has created a new licensing category for service providers. This category would restrict all proxies other than those offered by licensed businesses.
Authorities would be able to keep an eye on VPN traffic with licensed service providers because one of their main complaints has been the anonymity that proxy networks offer.
According to the idea, local businesses will offer proxy services to consumers while being constrained by Pakistani laws, license agreements, and regulatory requirements.
In contrast to the current situation, where the majority of VPN providers are foreign corporations, this will allow the regulator to exercise greater oversight over these businesses.
Moderation of content
The PTA’s initiatives to control social media content were also presented to the committee.
According to Mr. Rehman, the PTA gets about 500 complaints every day about offensive or unlawful information on social networking sites.
“There is still a big enforcement gap, but we are in constant communication with social media companies to block harmful content,” the PTA head continued.
Clear legal standards on internet governance, content banning, and government agencies’ roles in overseeing digital services were also demanded by the committee.
