NA unanimously approves resolution for lifting YouTube ban

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution to lift the ban on video-sharing website YouTube, DawnNews reported.

During today's National Assembly session, chaired by Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, MNA Shazia Marri belonging to the Pakistan People Party (PPP) submitted a resolution demanding the lifting of the ban on YouTube which was unanimously accepted by the lower house of parliament.

Ms Marri had said that the government should lift ban on YouTube as soon as possible.

She added that people were using proxy servers to watch YouTube while the government should not adopt any double standards in this regard.

In response to the resolution, Minister of State for Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tarar, assured the house that the government would lift the ban on YouTube soon.

Tarar said that it was the collective responsibility of all the parties to discuss the matter in detail and requested that the leaders of the parliamentary parties should suggest the names of the members from their parties to take part in the discussions in this regard.

The video-sharing website has been blocked in Pakistan since September 2012 when the then prime minister belonging to the PPP ordered its shutdown over its failure to take down the “Innocence of Muslims” movie that sparked furious protests around the world.

Despite the removal of the contentious video and claims by the government, the video-sharing remains banned in the country.

— Irfan Haider contributed to the reporting of this story

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Comments (26) Closed

May 06, 2014 01:22pm

Before you all thank the government and bring out your celebration hats, don't forget this should have happened a long time ago and is a basic right. The government hasn't done us any special favours

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Masoud

May 06, 2014 01:40pm

If the very reason for imposing this ban was addressed by the youtube administrator then the ban removal is OK otherwise it shows the weakness of the gov't. In this case no one will take us seriously in future.

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Ali

May 06, 2014 02:00pm

Thanks God! Finally we will be able to access educational tutorials without any proxy server :)

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AKA

May 06, 2014 03:36pm

What an issue to be united upon. Hats off Youtube should be filtered.

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Ameer

May 06, 2014 04:01pm

@Masoud: No one takes us seriously either way.

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Saad

May 06, 2014 04:02pm

@Masoud No one is taking us serious now either. Its all happened just because of our stupid mindset. This was us muslims who advertised for this video. Ever been to Youtube? there are millions of such videos and garbage laying there no one knows.

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Azmat Khan

May 06, 2014 04:15pm

Good news and thank you Shazia, a courageous lawmaker.We are living in a modern world.Please let us live.

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Paladin

May 06, 2014 04:33pm

Great move.

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Changazi

May 06, 2014 05:48pm

We dont have other problem as terrorism, loadshedding, water shortage, gas shortage etc etc...........Ban on youtube was the biggest problem at the present. Thanks to the MNAs to address the real problem of this nation. Bravo!

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Sajjad

May 06, 2014 06:15pm

Great news... now people have more reasons to get online and waste their time. Thank you Shazia for thinking about us to stay online and not worry about anything else in our lives such as prosperity through jobs and education. Governments have authorized companies to give night packages so everyone can stay up all night, waste more time online by watching videos and give us 12 hour of load shedding so no one can even sleep properly. To be honest there is not any department of Pakistan which is doing well other than the media groups which we all know is more of a circus entertainment then actual news. At the end I thank myself and all my fellow Pakistanis for electing such great leaders who are keenly concerned about the well beings of us Pakistanis.

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Salim A

May 06, 2014 06:51pm

Trying to put a lid on information even offensive one will not work in the long run. Government and mullahs should stay out of controlling people's thoughts, minds and freedom to choose. Freedom of information is toxic to the feudal control freaks.

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Salim A

May 06, 2014 06:53pm

@Sajjad You have a choice, You don't have to watch it. Why do you think everyone else should follow your logic??

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amir khan

May 06, 2014 07:01pm

@Salim A I agree wholeheartedly.

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Ayesha

May 06, 2014 08:23pm

To begin with, only the access to the movie should have been blocked, there was no need to block the entire you tube. Emotional reactions always bring disaster.

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Saraz

May 06, 2014 10:40pm

lovely

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May 06, 2014 10:47pm

@Sajjad: No one is forcing you to stay awake all night or waste your time in any other way. And it isn't your business what others do with their time.

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akram

May 06, 2014 11:35pm

The ban on you tube is arguably the most foolish act any politician did. It's the equivalent of trying to push water uphill with your bare hands. A great tool for educating is banned, even though everyone found their way around it.

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Jalaluddin S. Hussain

May 07, 2014 12:30am

Lifting ban on Utube is welcome! Is it possible to pass a majority resolution on feudalism also? I do realize that this is impossible, but at least we should give it a try.

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Usman

May 07, 2014 12:54am

@Changazi Ban on youtube IS a real world problem. Something that hinders education, research, learning.. is a real world problem.

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Sajjad

May 07, 2014 02:01am

@Salim and @MP there is a saying by Ray Bradbury,

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kepler - 8B

May 07, 2014 03:09am

While Youtube is blocked hundreds of radical Islamist website flourishing without any government restriction promoting hatred and Jihad against its own citizen. What Pakistan has achieved so for. Nada !!

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yousuf

May 07, 2014 05:55am

The report mentions 'unanimous' passing of resolution but leaves out the critical information on the number of lawmakers who voted. Something is fishy here. I seriously doubt the religious parties voting for the lifting of the ban.

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Seriously

May 07, 2014 08:30am

@Masoud Are you for real? Nobody takes us seriously right now either. Get over your inflated ego. The world is moving on. Either get with it or fade away trying to sound important.

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soha

May 07, 2014 02:33pm

All these discussion are useless...........

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Haroon

May 07, 2014 05:28pm

For those who care have proxy servers and for those who don't care; well they just don't care. So a moot point except perhaps for a bad international repute that we really don't want going any lower.

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google

May 08, 2014 04:04pm

Despite the removal of the contentious video and claims by the government, the video-sharing remains banned in the country. Partial Freedom ......

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