KARACHI, May 30: A Washington-based news website — South Asia Tribune — has claimed that the government has blocked access to its URL.
A press statement issued by the Tribune on Friday said Internet access to their website, www.satribune.com, “has been blocked” by Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE), the Internet backbone provider for Pakistan.
But Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari expressed his ignorance about the development when asked to comment about the alleged denial of access to the website.
“I am not aware whether the website has been blocked or not,” he observed but assured that his ministry had no authority to block any website.
Similarly, when Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid was asked to comment on report that the site had been blocked on the direction of the government, he said the allegation had no truth in it.
“We are neither interested nor do we know how to block Internet websites,” the information minister said.
Secretary Information Anwar Mahmood said the ministry had nothing to do with the blocking of the news website, arguing that if the government was interested in blocking site, then it could have done so six months earlier.
The Tribune alleged that internet service providers (ISPs) which offer connectivity through International Private Leased circuits have been asked by high-ranking government officials to block access to www.satribune.com.
In October last year, PIE placed a ban on Internet telephony or voice chat websites. PIE, which is a subsidiary of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, has been blocking sites offering pornographic and ‘other objectionable’ content since Jan 2003. PIE was established last year to offer a single point of access for local ISPs.
