LAHORE, April 26: The Lahore High Court (LHC) sought on Friday assistance of the Ministry of Information and Technology on a petition challenging the ban on YouTube, a widely used social media website, and directed the federal government to seek the point of view of Google administration based in Singapore.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah issued the order on a petition moved by local NGO ‘Bytes for All’ challenging the ban imposed by the former government last year on the YouTube for exhibiting blasphemous material.

YouTube is a subsidiary of Google.

The government had decided to continue the ban after the Google administration refused to remove the blasphemous material.

Almost all Muslim countries had strongly protested against the blasphemous videos uploaded on the social media website.

During the course of hearing, a deputy attorney general told the court that the federal government was willing to lift the ban but the blasphemous material was still there.

The deputy attorney general pointed out that there was no agreement between Pakistan and the Google under which the government could censor controversial material.

A representative of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told the court that like several countries, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Pakistan would also be able in about four months to censor controversial and undesirable stuff from websites.

Justice Shah issued a notice asking IT Minister Dr Sania Nishtar to appear personally before the court or depute a responsible official of the ministry to assist the court on the matter.

The judge also directed the federal government to approach the Google administration in Singapore and seek their point of view.

He also asked the government to arrange, if possible, the appearance of a Google representative in the court on May 17.

The court would resume hearing on May 3 to the extent of the response of the Ministry of Information and Technology.

The NGO had said the ban amounted to infringing upon fundamental rights about reading and acquiring knowledge. It said a large number of people had been affected by the ban.