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Dr. Raghib Hussain Naeemi, the Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), has clarified the council’s recent fatwa, which deemed the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as un-Islamic.
In a discussion on Geo News, he mentioned that whether a VPN is registered or unregistered, it is deemed un-Islamic if utilized to access indecent material or disseminate false information.
The CII had earlier stressed the necessity of blocking immoral or blasphemous content online, which led to the fatwa issued on November 15.
Naeemi pointed out that a significant number of VPN users visit indecent websites, stating that approximately 15 million hits occur on such sites each day.
He noted that employing a registered VPN for constructive criticism is permissible.
In reaction to the CII’s perspective, Rana Sanaullah, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), criticized the council’s viewpoint, claiming that the issue of VPNs falls outside the CII’s jurisdiction.
He argued that the government’s measures regarding VPN restrictions aimed to curb the misuse of social media platforms and maintained that this issue should not be mixed with religious decrees.
