ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - The Islamabad High Court has issued notices to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the information ministry to submit replies on ban on social media platform X.
IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq heard the plea which challenges the blockage of X, formerly Twitter, since Feb 17.
At the outset, the chief justice asked whether X was blocked. The petitioner’s counsel replied that it had been blocked since Feb 17.
The chief justice then posed a question what was the status as the matter was also taken up by the Sindh High Court.
The counsel informed the court that the SHC was supposed to hear the contempt plea today (Tuesday).
Justice Farooq said he was issuing notices for a date next week. The court issued notices to the PTA and the information ministry.
According to media reports, the plea was filed by Ehtisham Abbasi, a resident of Islamabad, urging the high court to issue directives to the respondents to “immediately lift the ban on X (Twitter) access in the interest of justice”.
It argued that the “act of the respondents against journalists particularly in the recent past is highly violative” of Article 19 of the Constitution (freedom of speech).
The petitioner said the disruption of X “suffers from serious legal infirmities as the same is not sustainable in view of the settled law” and that “a number of other constitutional and statutory rights have been infringed and circumvented”.
Meanwhile, rights organisations have called into question denial of facility to people in Pakistan and demanded its restoration.