Islamabad: Pakistan will take serious cognisance of any such detrimental material to Islam and obscene material being released on the internet and being replicated in Pakistan and all anti Islamic sites would be fully monitored round the clock and remedial actions would be taken.

The decision was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Interior, Senator Rehman Malik and attended by Federal Secretary Interior, Secretary Information Technology, Chairman PTA, Additional Secretary Ministry of Interior, Director FIA and other senior officers of the two ministries.

Federal Interior for Minister noted with great appreciation that Secretary IT and Chairman PTA has done very professional job. The action so far taken by the PTA and IT Ministry to block 122 anti-Islamic attacks which were blocked in Pakistan. The canvas of internet is too large and needs to be monitored closely to control such Blasphemous, anti-Islamic slogans, videos, audios etc.

During the meeting it was decided that a team has been constituted headed by Member (legal), Ministry of IT, Member (technical) TA, DG S&D, PTA and Director FIA with the mandate to carry out round the clock monitoring of all such sites and take remedial actions.

The government has very firmly decided that Pakistan will take serious cognisance of any such detrimental material to Islam and obscene material being released on the internet and being replicated in Pakistan. All web designers, web sites, blocked sites, social media to refrain from planting any such material which may hurt the feelings of Muslims.

Serious action in terms of legal action against such violators shall be taken.

The Committee will meet every week which will be duly monitored by a team of two Federal Secretaries and Chairman PTA who will keep advising the concerned authorities to enhance the monitoring system for zero tolerance in the issue.

A control room under the supervision of a Director PTA shall come into force with immediate effect which will monitor 24 hours a day and they will not only monitor but also block such sites/material instantly.

It has been appealed to the public that any such detrimental material coming to any body’s attention must be reported immediately to the PTA on 080055055 or such information can also be emailed on complaint@pta.gov.pk.

It is clarified that neither youtube nor facebook is blocked and only material detrimental to anti-Islamic material, obscene material shall be blocked on case to case basis.

Following proposals have been finalized to be placed in the larger meeting to be held next week to further finalize in consultation with all the stakeholders.

It was noted that there were total 24 million mobile SIMs which were blocked on the recommendations of the Ministry of Interior during a high powered meeting and in process nobody claimed 7 million mobile SIMs as they were either stolen or fake IDs. Now there are 17 million pre-paid SIMs and it has been noticed that operation of these connections have been reported to be still either fake or stolen IDs or because of inadequate information.

It has been decided that they should be got verified through a well-planned data collecting exercise without causing inconvenience to the general public. Accordingly, it is proposed that mobile service providers shall be made responsible to get their respective subscribers verified through a mechanism whereby a proforma which shall be designed and which should be either got instantly verified through available electronic devices or through manual procedure of verification (thumb impression) of the respective subscribers. Time line shall be decided in the larger meeting with all stake holders.

There will be a close coordination between the IT Ministry, PTA and NADRA for creating affective and efficient mechanical system to avoid complication or delays or any other inconvenience pre-empted to be faced subsequently by the people.

Increase in mobile phone sets with replicated IMEI numbers has been noticed and in this connection FBR has been directed to block the import of any such mobile phones with replicated IMEI and FIA has been directed to cease all such mobile phones with replicated IMEI numbers.

It has also been proposed that use of stolen mobile phones will be made non-bailable offence with seven years of imprisonment.

It will be mandatory for the telephone owners to report to the police and supply police report to the service providers, PTA enabling the authorities to block that mobile phone connection immediately and use of such stolen mobiles shall be controlled by PTA through a mechanism set up by PTA itself.

It has also been decided already expired Cyber Agreement Ordinance shall be resubmitted in the Parliament with enhanced scope.

A task force headed by Chairman PTA has been constituted with members, ADG FIA, Director (technical) IT Ministry and Deputy Chairman NADRA. This team will meet on regular basis and advise the government on how to enhance stopping of misuse of SIMs obtained fraudulently.

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