Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has summoned the interior secretary on April 17 to provide detailed reasons for the shutdown of social media platform X, which has been inaccessible in Pakistan since February. The court’s directives came during a hearing of a petition challenging the ban on X.
The shutdown of X came after former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaquat Chattha accused the chief election commissioner and chief justice of Pakistan of involvement in rigging the February 8 general elections. Rights bodies, journalists’ organizations, and internet service providers have condemned the shutdown, with the United States also calling on Pakistan to lift restrictions on social media platforms.
During the hearing, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq expressed dissatisfaction with the Interior Ministry’s report on the outage, stating that it lacked concrete evidence. He criticized the report for being based on speculation and ordered the interior secretary to appear in court with evidence on April 17.
The petition challenging the shutdown was filed by Ehtisham Abbasi, arguing that the ban violated freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution. The petition urged the court to lift the ban, calling the government’s actions arbitrary and mala fide.
