ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked 763,202 web links containing pornographic material and 23,558 sacrilegious websites.

This information was placed before Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) by PTA’s Director (Law) Khurram Siddiqui during the hearing of a petition seeking removal of blasphemous contents on Friday.

As per the report submitted to the court, the monitoring cell of the PTA blocked 23,558 websites containing blasphemous contents and 763,202 web links containing pornographic material.

As far as a technical solution (firewall) was concerned, the PTA said an expression of interest had been invited and there was likelihood of material progress in this regard which shall be brought into the notice of the court on or before the next date of hearing.

Justice Siddiqui expressed satisfaction over the steps and remarked that “this court feels that executive authorities have seriously started to act in order to execute the judgment in its letter and spirit.”

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Arshad Mehmood Kayani informed the court that the law to award similar punishment for false accusers of blasphemy had been drafted and would be tabled in parliament.

A special secretary to the ministry of interior also submitted a report showing steps they had taken so far.

During the last hearing on January 26, the IHC had directed the federal government to form a committee headed by the secretary cabinet to examine all sources of pornographic materials and formulate suggestions for its prevention. The committee shall also monitor foreign movies with regard to obscenity which would be banned.

Petitioner Salman Shahid through his counsel Mohammad Tariq Asad had sought the blockage of blasphemous pages on social media and directions for the government to initiate legal proceedings against the page administrators.

A final draft for bringing amendments to “Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016” has been placed for perusal of the court. The court has directed to include pornography and blasphemy in the definition chapter of the legislation.

The court noted that apparently the draft covered all aspects but it was for the legislature to deliberate, discuss and approve the amendments, which obviously were being proposed in compliance of the judgment passed on March 31.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018