Pakistan Temporary Block Social Media and Internet

 Normal life affected by internet shutdown, demand for immediate restoration

Citizens and business circles have demanded the government to immediately restore mobile data services, the disruption of which is disrupting daily life and costing citizens dearly financially.

The government suspended internet services on Tuesday (May 9) after violent protests erupted across the country in response to the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan. People rely on the Internet for everything from paying bills to buying groceries.

More than 100 members of the business community and civil society issued a joint statement calling for nationwide protests, saying, "We are deeply disturbed and strongly condemn the partial and complete shutdown of the Internet and the blocking of certain applications." .

They said that such shutdowns and blocking or filtering of internet services unjustifiably restricts the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.

He further said that millions of Pakistanis rely on Internet services for communication and essential business activities, by blocking, filtering or shutting down these services, the government is denying the basic rights of citizens, causing economic loss. Uncertainty is emerging and health, emergency services and economic routines are being disrupted.

He said that the internet shutdown has adversely affected the business start-ups in Pakistan which attracted more than 700 million dollars of investment during 2022 and 2023 and entrepreneurship, employment opportunities and digitization across the country. Those affected by the shutdown include hundreds of thousands of freelancers and digital creators.

He said that we strongly demand the government of Pakistan to immediately remove these restrictions which are aimed at depriving citizens of the right to access and communicate information online. Access should be recognized as a fundamental fundamental right that cannot be suddenly taken away at any time.

Apart from the general public, hundreds of companies have also been affected by the internet outage, with companies such as Bikeya, Carem and InDrive suffering huge losses as their customers (both drivers and passengers) have a mandatory need for mobile data.

A senior official of one of these companies said that not only our riders are affected by the disruption in the internet service, but the customers are also facing several hurdles to reach their destinations.

The outage of online services is also affecting online food delivery services like FoodPanda and Cheetah, with hundreds of restaurants working with these companies also affected around 6,000 home cooks.

Digital wallets like 'JazzCash' and 'EasyPaisa' confirmed that the number of normal transactions/payments fell by one-third during the 24 hours after internet services were suspended, vendors/agents in digital wallet services. are used as mini-banks and usually rely on mobile data.

Telecom companies have also criticized the government for suspending mobile internet services, CEO of 'Jazz Pakistan' Aamir Ibrahim tweeted that 'internet shutdown is not a solution to anything, during mobile internet emergencies. It is a critical need and an important source of productivity, but for almost 24 hours, 12.5 crore Pakistanis have been without it'.

He also referred to a report by the 'Business Recorder', according to which the telecom operators lost Rs 82 crore due to the one-day suspension of mobile internet services, while the government lost around Rs 287 crore in tax revenue. Damage has been done.

He further said that there are many disastrous effects on the economy but the suffering caused to the common citizens cannot be estimated.

Chairman Pakistan Software Houses Association Muhammad Zohaib Khan also strongly criticized the suspension of mobile data service and called it an unwise decision.

He said that the IT industry has come to a complete standstill since Tuesday evening, the Internet is our lifeline, our office, our communication infrastructure, the IT industry cannot function without it.

He said that due to the emerging political situation, the decision to completely shut down mobile internet services and slow down the speed of fixed-line internet in the country has been taken without consultation.

Zohaib Khan said that the IT industry and its services (ITES) were already under pressure due to wrong and inconsistent policies of the government and the current political crisis has completely suspended the work of the IT industry. Most of the professionals associated with the IT industry are working from home due to various reasons which are facing difficulties due to the recent outage of internet services.

He demanded Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of the matter and direct Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to restore internet service immediately.