KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the federal government and the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to restore services of social media platforms including X, formerly known as Twitter, across Pakistan.
The order was issued SHC bench, headed by SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, on a petition against the “unconstitutional” internet outages across the country in recent days.
The court also summoned report from PTA for suspending internet services on election day and i9ssued notice to federal government.
The platform X was disrupted across Pakistan for a fourth day on Wednesday, after a general election marred by allegations of rigging. It first went down on Saturday night when a senior government official made a public admission of vote manipulation in the February 8 polls.
In Washington, the State Department said it supported the right to Internet access without commenting on whether the United States has raised the issue with Pakistan.
“As a general matter, we want Internet platforms to be available to people in Pakistan and around the world,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
PTI defied a months-long crackdown that restricted its campaigning and forced candidates to run as independents, with PTI-backed candidates gaining more seats than any other party.
