ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior chairman Senator Rehman Malik has taken serious notice of blasphemous material being circulated on social media and asked the Federal Investi­gation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommuni­cation Authority (PTA) to take stern action against those generating and spreading blasphemous material on social media.

He directed the FIA and PTA to take up the matter with micro-blogging site Twitter and request immediate removal of the blasphemous content from the platform.

According to a notice issued by the committee secretary, Senator Malik had taken a serious notice of blasphemous material being circulated through a Twitter account @AneelaEhsan and few others on social media. Stern action be taken against the culprits, he said.

The committee members said the anti-Islam propaganda was against the UN Charter on interfaith harmony. The blasphemous material might create law and order situation in the country as it was highly derogatory and anti-Islam, they said.

Senator Malik said that the accounts should be permanently suspended and the handler of such accounts should be traced and legal action must be ensured under the relevant law. If the criminals are outside the jurisdiction of Pakistan then help from Interpol may be sought, he said.

The committee chairman issued directives for taking up the matter with Twitter. He said the blasphemous content should be removed from the platform and action should be taken against the people responsible for it.

Senator Malik said that the matter would be taken up in the next committee meeting scheduled for Jan 3, 2020.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2019