Of laws and other gases

E-Paper | June 14, 2026

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Open letter to Lahore High Court & Advocate Mohammad Azhar Siddiqui

Subject: Note of thanks on the decision to ban Facebook.

Dear Sirs,

First of all, let me commend you on your act to ban the devil's playground Facebook from the land of the pure. Surely it is within the GUI of this web based social networking site that the devil himself resides.

Had a lesser number of laptops and desktops been used in the past years to access Facebook, we would not have been in a power crisis that we face today.

Had people not accessed links like "this girl committed suicide after she uploaded a naked photo", they would've not been so frustrated and Mukhtara Mai would have still had her honor.

Had people not seen clips of Altaf Hussain’s press conference, women would still have adorned the burqa like it was meant to keep something concealed.

And what do you think Osama Bin Laden did during all those years in that house in Abottabad? Facebook ofcourse. Had it been banned sooner, OBL would've gotten bored of watching American idol on YouTube and gone out for a walk, making it easier to catch him.

More jobs would have been created...

Our nation would have been self-sufficient in petroleum... More over, Quaid-e-Azam would have cut the inaugural ribbon to commission the Kalabagh Dam.

Sir, it is with a deep sense of pride that I am going to tell my children that I lived in an age when Facebook was banned and how you, together with the support of the people of Pakistan, saved the world from total annihilation.

Because let's face it, the way Facebook is progressing, the end of days will be soon at hand. We already have women talking back, it's not long till the terminator comes to claim the life of John Connor and as recent history reveals, Rehman Malik would be unable to be anywhere than "be back".

So Thank you Sir for realising that Facebook is that virulent pathogen by way of which we would've met our end and taking solid steps to save....

Wait... 1 new notification...

The writer is an engineer by profession and activist by heart. Hates politics but doesn’t hesitate in voicing his opinions specially when his country is involved.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.

Our readers are at the heart of everything we do.
Do you have a thought to share or a way we can improve? We’d love to hear it. Reach out to us at feedback@dawn.com.

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M junaid

Sep 22, 2011 05:00pm

Good Job mate... this man Azhar has 3500+ friendz on Facebook and if he want to ban then first he should remove his own account.... Good Deeds always starts frm home.. So better first remove ur acount

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G.A.

Sep 22, 2011 05:03pm

Sadly, it appears that there are only two solutions to every problem in Pakistan. Either ban it or blow it up altogether.

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Marium

Sep 22, 2011 05:06pm

How Apt! hehe!

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Arif

Sep 22, 2011 05:08pm

True... All the Blasts, Floods, Target Killings, Joblessness, Poverty (etc......) will now be part of history since Facebook was the real evil behind all these....

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Abdullah

Sep 22, 2011 05:09pm

Sadly this is going over a lot of heads, you may want to add a /sarcasm tag at the end. "Surely it is within the GUI of this site that the devil himself resides." Hilarious!

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Nasrat Baloch

Sep 22, 2011 05:14pm

Totally agreed

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Ahmed Ali

Sep 22, 2011 05:15pm

We are a funny nation :)

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Abid Rizavi

Sep 22, 2011 05:15pm

Absolutely Spot On!

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Waseem Chaudhry

Sep 22, 2011 05:22pm

Well well while understanding and agreeing with writer point , I like to stress that there are always some time truly need to ban the social website even like face book .we should not under mind ourselves for sake of enlightenment .

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Subhan Tariq

Sep 22, 2011 05:46pm

I guess its not a good idea to ban Facebook. People will never stop saying stuff against our religion its better one should delete his/her account.

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Khaqan J.

Sep 22, 2011 06:07pm

you ever heard of the word sarcasm? Search it up in the dictionary for future reference :)

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Hassan Sharif Khan

Sep 22, 2011 06:39pm

What I find disturbing about some of the comments is that people think that a state can stop people by making laws. Banning anything is the opposite of having an idea. People ban things when they are afraid. Islam is not weak today because of Facebook, it has been weakened by Muslims behaving exactly opposite of what the Prophet asked them to behave like. If Pakistan thinks that bans will save it from anything then have a look at the ban on alcohol.

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perucker

Sep 22, 2011 07:15pm

probably a measure should also be taken to send facebookaholics to rehab....

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faris

Sep 22, 2011 07:40pm

well i know that facebook is a social networking site and,accordin to a survey, is also diverting the attention of students from their studies,but students are responsible for thier future.Now it's upto them wether to exploite thier future or not.I am also a student but i have deactivated my account since 2009.

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vicky

Sep 22, 2011 07:50pm

I like your sarcastic way...hehe LHC saved the whole world from annhiliation....not only pakistan

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Aaisha Kanwal

Sep 22, 2011 08:24pm

It's always easy to point out negative points rather than the positive ones.& i believe that fb is not the only thing responsible for the prevailing circumstnces..what u think? our primeMinister won't be using fb? Our president won't be using fb? how abt Bilawal Bhutto?

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Aloona

Sep 22, 2011 09:21pm

+1 :) I can't help laughing at folks taking this for real :) Anyway, good job Fahad!

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irfan

Sep 22, 2011 10:15pm

I think it is good idea to ban Facebook.

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kashif akhtar

Sep 22, 2011 10:28pm

what do you expect from the lawyers of Pakistan who receives a cold blood killer with flowers and call him a hero. Patheric way to get publicity. An educated illitrate at its best.

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banned

Sep 22, 2011 10:33pm

Charity begins from home!!!! Please delete your account first and publish image that you have banned Ban facebook, then youtube, then twitter then other then slowly all foreign news channels , every thing ban whole internet, ban whole world. ban ban ban . If you want to write letter about banning, then ban poverty, ban scams, ban floods by creating dams, ban intolerance in our society, ban women suppression , ban terrorism attacks in minorities, ban haj scams, ban hate.

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Ali

Sep 22, 2011 11:00pm

I think it will be better that we use our energies in construct ives ideas instead of wasting it,as far as the BAN on Fb is consider it is not possible to stop using it on individual level until it is completely BAN on gross root level to save our society,culture and values before it is further rotten by this deadly patogen . . .

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M.A.

Sep 22, 2011 11:31pm

so the LHC can ban facebook and Mr. Malik can talk about banning gmail and youtube but why not all the porn sites?

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M.A.

Sep 22, 2011 11:44pm

banning facebook because some XYZ created a page which says burn Quran day is plain hypocrisy, especially if there are dozens of inappropriate sites, and false islamic sites that go unbanned, also there are dozens of websites that spit out hate mongering for Islam and Quran and Muslims which are not banned in Pakistan... the question to ask is why just facebook?

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hasham hanif

Sep 23, 2011 12:17am

bannning fb is not a solution being honest wid the country is solution we all are corrupt not only the politicians we all break traffic rules how can the policeman take bribe if we will not give him...we need to be honest first of all

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M Arif

Sep 23, 2011 01:54am

plz pray 4 PAKISTAN it is My humble request

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devilzpassionfake

Sep 23, 2011 06:28am

Well ...nice articulated words. I dont know why Pakistani minds are alwayz after banning stuff, before Facebook it was Coke, Nestle, NIKE etc etc..... Why cant we move with the pace of the world holding our religious and ethical values. If you want to Ban facebook or any other site , first BE Capable of providing Alternatives. Can you give such a fast Real time network solution all over the Globe?? Making sense??

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sufyan

Sep 23, 2011 09:06am

I agreed, Facebook is 99.99 % pure in terms of its uselessness......

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Sahreen Virani

Sep 23, 2011 09:44am

I agreed with you..

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Sheeba

Sep 23, 2011 09:57am

In our Nation we have other so many issues beside face book, let them resolve first ,then come to these things, we are still not getting basic necessities

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Shakeel GHOURI

Sep 23, 2011 10:03am

It is the point of shame that our generation have been so trapped in this garbage that even they don't care about the blasphemies done in this devil area. Although I totally agree with the writer for it should be banned, but I am little agree for the idea that our all (profitable and non-profitable) affairs rely on its ban. There are many other things which should too be taken into consideration along with its ban.

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Anil Sharma

Sep 23, 2011 10:17am

Facebook - Twitter - Google makes the vertices of the bermuda triangle, where the productivity just disappears. Good that Pakistan Govt dared to ban one of the horns of this devil. When will it chop the other two horns off ?

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Awais Khan

Sep 23, 2011 10:45am

This is ridiculous! A better solution could have been found.

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naila Shakil

Sep 23, 2011 10:56am

A very well written article indeed.Hope to read more articles from you in future.Keep it up Fahad.

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tahir rana

Sep 23, 2011 11:42am

its not about banning the facebook, its about facing the world.

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Haider

Sep 23, 2011 12:12pm

I am not Agree to Ban the Facebook..... This is NOT a solution!

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Maria Izhar

Sep 23, 2011 12:41pm

He has written it in sarcastic way he is not favoring the idea of banning it

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Ravi

Sep 23, 2011 12:43pm

Common we need Free Speech in society. People can say whatever they want aslong as it doesnt lead to, instigate or cause violence. Baning a website or baning the account of people who say things against your religion basiclly means you ostracize anyone with a differing opinion. So if you say anything bad about Pakistan your account should also be banned. Where does this stop ? If any religion has to be policed then its not a religion at all. Islam doesnt need all this. It needs people show the tolerance, beauty, practicality and objectivity of the religion and by the way im not a muslim but have plenty of muslim friends from all around the world and am glad they dont think like you.

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Raqib

Sep 23, 2011 02:19pm

Good One man!, just add one more thing to it, if they do not ban Facebook our young will die of improper diet, because young generation find Facebook so interesting (Compared to boring interview of our politicians) they don not find enough time to eat. :D :D

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Alex

Sep 23, 2011 02:34pm

First attain a stature in world where enterprises like Facebook will shudder to contemplate the loss of Pakistani clients. In today's situation who cares whether Pakistan bans facebook or not !

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Ammad

Sep 23, 2011 03:00pm

i also agree with you ...this article makes no sense

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Mishal

Sep 23, 2011 03:04pm

hahaha...well done! Love the sarcasm =D By the way, I just want to add one thing more...Only ELITE have an FB account in Pakistan, 70% of the population doesn't have even food, how can they afford a PC and Internet?

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waqas maqsood

Sep 23, 2011 03:31pm

Facebook is doing harm to our new generation inasmuch as it has weaned us from doing something more beneficial work like reading,playing etc.After spending hours on facebook you get nothing but a few info about ur friends.It has its advantages too and u can't bar anything you have not been able to take a fancy to.

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Adil

Sep 23, 2011 04:29pm

And lets ban all other elements of the 21 century, our people shouldnt learn to adapt to this new world. After all no one ever got ahead in life by embracing the future and learning to manage it.

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Ahmad

Sep 24, 2011 12:44am

That is an awesome letter! i support the writers Idea! I would just add one more line for the honorable Judge Please do read and understand what the writer meant!

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farhan

Sep 24, 2011 04:08am

If the writer is so much fond of activism, lets see him protesting on roads with placards. anyone can be a drawing room activist

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numbersnumbers

Sep 24, 2011 09:00am

This article was SATIRE, please reread and see that author is poking fun.

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Yasir

Sep 26, 2011 07:38pm

very interesting post :) ..

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Imran Ali Muhammad S

Sep 28, 2011 01:58pm

Good Job mate… this man Azhar has 3500+ friendz on Facebook and if he want to ban then first he should remove his own account…. Good Deeds always starts frm home.. So better first remove ur acount. facebook is a social networking site and,accordin to a survey, is also diverting the attention of students from their studies,but students are responsible for thier future.

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Ikram

Sep 29, 2011 07:21pm

Good article but by looking at comments one can judge the level of English language understanding ability of most of commentators because they couldn't get the satire.

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Ruth - USA

Oct 04, 2011 08:14am

I would be devastated if communication with my Pakistani friends were banned. Banning communication is not the answer. It is of my opinion that creating honest and open communication to discuss ideas and thoughts, will open doors for understanding each others likeness and differences, and hopefully create peace. This is my hope.

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junaid kamal

Jun 19, 2012 12:00pm

Writer is in the good mode ;-)

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