Unblocking YouTube : LHC orders steps to block controversial material | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Unblocking YouTube : LHC orders steps to block controversial material

Pakistan Press Foundation

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court has directed the minister of information and technology to hold a meeting of technical experts to evolve a joint strategy for blocking controversial material from YouTube.

The bench nominated technical experts of the private sector and the technical team of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the ministry to evolve a joint strategy for blocking controversial material from YouTube. The experts are Salman Akhtar, chief executive officer, Techlogix Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd, Zartash Afzal Uzmi, associate professor, electrical engineering and computer science, Syed Babar Ali School of science and engineering, Lahore, Lahore University of Management Sciences, (LUMS), Lahore, Khurram Zafar, executive director, centre for entrepreneurship, LUMS and Wajajus Siraj, chief executive officer, Naytel Private Limited.

The bench directed that the meeting should also include an officer of the attorney general’s office, besides a representative of the petitioner NGO, Bytes for All, who had moved the court to lift the ban on YouTube. The bench directed the minister to hold this meeting in Islamabad or Lahore. It directed to hold this meeting without fail before the next date of the hearing (May 13) and place her report regarding the outcome of the said meeting on the record.

The bench directed the LHC office to dispatch a copy of this order to the minister of state, Ministry of Information Technology, through regular mode. The order shall also be dispatched to the other members of the proposed meeting.

Daily Times