RECENT press reports indicated that the ‘firewall’ that was set up in Pakistan in 2024 by the government was being rolled back due to its impact on the quality of internet services in the country. However, when the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecom met on Feb 26, the secretary of the IT & telecom ministry clarified that the firewall was not being shut down and was fully functional, as reports suggested soon after rumours started making the rounds on the media. These events are taking place at a time of heightened digital surveillance and censorship; frequent Peca (Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act) cases against journalists, lawyers, political workers and academics; and cyberattacks on Pakistani media infrastructure.

Foremost is the issue of transparency related to internet infrastructure in Pakistan. The Web Monitoring System installed in 2018 became public knowledge after press reports and leaks rather than any official confirmation by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and IT ministry. Similarly, since 2023, knowledge of the upgradation of the WMS, often referred to as the firewall, had to be investigated by the media and international organisations, and only upon being questioned by the parliamentary committees and by some journalists, would the IT minister and PTA chair give bits of information. It is such opacity and lack of proactive disclosures — something that all public authorities are bound to make since the inclusion of Article 19-A in the Constitution that relates to the public’s right to information — that gives rise to misinformation, rumours and confusion.

Such uncertainty and confusion has a high economic and political cost for Pakistanis. First, the cost of such infrastructure — an Al Jazeera investigation put it somewhere between $72 million and $107m — is too high for an economy with increasing poverty, especially when such infrastructure contributes to further economic issues. Internet speeds in Pakistan have drastically slowed down since 2023, an issue that remains undiagnosed by the state apparatus.

The slowing down of internet speeds has had an adverse impact on the IT sector, especially freelancers that offer their highly skilled services to clients around the world. Around 1.6 million Pakistanis migrated in 2024 — the year when internet services slowed down considerably — as global freelance platforms started notifying prospective clients of Pakistani experts of their potential unavailability due to internet disruptions. Many IT firms have relocated to the Gulf or Southeast Asia in order to get stable internet services critical to the functioning of their businesses. This has a direct impact on Pakistanis’ right to livelihood.

Firewalls must not be misused for the unlawful surveillance and censorship of our own citizens.

Second, the upgraded WMS and the Lawful Interference Management System have impacted the right to freedom of speech and privacy of Pakistani citizens. This is because they enable mass-scale surveillance — as confirmed in the audio leaks case at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in 2024 — apart from enabling the state to block websites arbitrarily as has been the practice.

Since the WMS was upgraded, journalists who now run YouTube channels have complained of a steep decline in views of their vlogs; WhatsApp functionality is affected during mass protests; and expanded surveillance of social media has led to an increase in cases under Peca for ‘criticism of the state’. The latter has been enabled by the January 2025 amendment to Peca, which now allows the ‘state’ itself to be a complainant. Prev­i­­ously, only a natural person who was the agg­ri­e­ved party could be the complainant in a Peca case. Hence, it is no surprise that every other day we see Peca cases filed against journalists, lawyers, academics and activists by the ‘state’ through the Nat­ional Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

Despite the expansive legal authority contained in Peca, which outlines due process, enforced disappearances continue in blatant violation of fair trial rights guaranteed by Article 10 of the Constitution. Take, for instance, PhD candidate and Canadian national Hamza Khan who disappeared for three days before magically appearing in the custody of the NCCIA with a Peca case registered against him under Sections 20, 24 and 26-A (dignity of a person, cyberstalking and false information). The state, through the NCCIA, is the complainant. The state was also the complainant in the case registered under Peca against rights activists and lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha. The proceedings were so rushed and marked by frequent due process violations that even the Supreme Court took note. Journalist Sohrab Barkat, who has finally been granted bail after three months of unlawful pre-trial detention, also has four Peca cases under similar sections against him.

With mainstream media disallowed from covering even deforestation in Pakistan, censorship is rife. Criminalising online speech has a grave impact on the ability of Pakistani citizens, including the press, to hold the state accountable for using taxpayers’ money against the interests of citizens. Hence, it is imperative that the PTA and IT ministry ensure full transparency on the nature of the WMS, make public its contracts with the companies that have supplied different parts of the technology as revealed by the Amnesty International September 2025 report, and offer it up for public scrutiny though parliament and media.

It is also imperative that the higher judiciary hear the petition filed in the IHC by journalist Hamid Mir challenging the WMS firewall, and in the Lahore High Court by journalist Benazir Shah challenging Peca amendments. Firewalls are important to thwart cyberattacks, but must not be misused for the unlawful surveillance and censorship of our own citizens.

Judges and parliamentarians must live up to the expectations of Pakistanis who have been frustrated by injustice, hopelessness, and uncertainty for too long. It is time to set fair laws and policies, and to follow them diligently.

The writer is director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy forum for digital rights.

X: @UsamaKhilji

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2026