The Pakis­tan Tele­communication Authority (PTA) has conceded that the Ministry of Interior had issued instru­c­tions to suspend mobile phone services on Feb 8, the polling day.

In its reply submitted before a Sindh High Court (SHC) bench on Tuesday, the authority asserted that it was bound to follow the directions of the interior ministry and was merely the implementing agency.

A two-judge SHC bench, headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, was hearing identical petitions filed against the suspension of mobile internet and broadband services and the outage of X/Twitter.

PTA stated that it passed on the instruction of the operators to suspe­nd cellular data and call services across the country (except Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir) at 5:39am on the polling day.

They were instructed to resume the services on the ministry’s directives around 24 hours later. PTA pleaded that the ministry “acts on behalf of the government” and iss­ues directions for the closure of network services.

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