Citizens demand internet services restoration as suspension enters fourth day

Fed up with prolonged internet blackout, citizens across the country on Friday urged the government to restore broadband services immediately.

The ongoing internet blackout not only badly hit businesses and commercial activities but also disrupted the daily life of the common man across the country.

The government suspended internet services on May 9 after violent protests broke out in the country after the law enforcers took Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan into custody from inside the Islamabad High Court in Al-Qadir Trust case.

Taking to Twitter, a netizen Zulfiqar Ahmed wrote: “The suspension of mobile internet has caused disruption to the livelihood of 160,000 Bykea, InDriver and Uber drivers. Unnecessary loss of livelihood in the current economic situation.”

Senior journalist Kamran Khan said, “Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif after three days of tumult Pakistan is now back to normal. It's business as usual. Please order swift restoration of internet services.”

He added that further suspension of mobile data services will multiply financial losses caused to the national exchequer and private businesses in the last three days.

 

Another internet user demanded penalty on the internet companies and sought compensation for the suspension of the services.

Taking to the microblogging site, journalist Faizan Lakhani said: “Unimaginable loss and stress for the people who use online apps to earn their bread and butter, like food panda delivery boys, bykea/Careem/InDrive drivers due to this suspension of mobile internet services.”

He further said that the government must think about these people before blocking the internet.

Sources privy to the matter said that telecom operators have incurred an estimated revenue loss of Rs820 million, while the government has lost almost Rs287 million in tax revenue.

In addition to this, the sudden internet suspension left thousands of daily-earning riders without jobs, multiplying their miseries amid the skyrocketing inflation in the country.   

'Internet to remain suspended till further order' 

Earlier today, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that it had not yet received any directives from the government regarding the restoration of mobile internet services.

The step was taken by the authorities to control the spread of chaos, while access to major social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube has also been blocked since then.

The PTA said that mobile internet service across the country will remain suspended until further notice.

However, it added, broadband internet service was available to the users.

The telecom regulator said that the Ministry of Interior had issued orders to suspend mobile internet service and it had not received any fresh directives in this regard from the authorities.

Amnesty International expresses reservations

Meanwhile, Amnesty International urged Pakistan authorities to lift restrictions on the internet services that were blocked after the arrest of former premier Imran Khan in the Al Qadir Trust corruption case.

Rimmel Mohydin, the South Asian campaigner at Amnesty International, said: “There is an urgent need to de-escalate the situation in Pakistan as it threatens further severe violations of rights of the people and risks more fatalities.”

While asking officials to restrain from excessive use of force, she added: "The authorities should be aiming to defuse the situation and the use of force by the state must go no further than is necessary and proportionate. Amnesty International strongly urges Pakistani authorities to exercise restraint and use minimum force without resorting to the use of firearms to disperse protesters.”

“The authorities must also ensure no arbitrary arrests are made and that there is evidence of reasonable suspicion of criminality for each arrest,” the campaigner said.

"Alarmingly, the government has announced that the mobile internet shutdown is ‘indefinite’ which is a clear violation of people’s right to access information and free expression," Mohydin maintained.

"The ban on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube also creates a permissive environment for other human rights violations under the darkness of the internet shutdown,” she highlighted, adding that "the restrictions must be lifted immediately."