Pakistan’s minister for information technology and telecommunication confirmed Friday the government is implementing an internet firewall but rejected talk that the tool will curb free speech online, defending it as a cybersecurity upgrade.
“It’s a system. It is not a physical wall that we are putting up,” Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the state minister, told VOA. “It will not curb anything.”
The junior minister, currently the ministry’s top official, defended the government’s decision to implement a nationwide internet regulatory tool, saying the country was under daily cyberattacks.
“If a cybersecurity system, a capability, comes to the government, it’s a good thing,” Khawaja said in response to a VOA question at a news briefing earlier.
Pakistan has allocated more than $70 million for a Digital Infrastructure Development Initiative in the latest budget. Critics and digital rights activists worry the nationwide firewall will be used to silence dissent.
Pakistani authorities have hinted at a nationwide censorship tool for months but hesitated to issue a formal statement.
In a January interview with a news channel, Pakistan's then-interim prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, announced the measure.
"Very soon a national firewall will be deployed," Kakar said.
A high-ranking government official confirmed to VOA Urdu in June that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government was working to deploy a nationwide tool meant to control internet traffic and filter content available to online users in Pakistan.
Sharif’s government has rebuffed calls for clarity, however, while downplaying censorship concerns.
“I think if there is a firewall system, it will be about cybersecurity and data security. It will have nothing to do with freedom of speech, as far as I know,” Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said at a news briefing Sunday.
Earlier the minister dismissed reports that Pakistan was acquiring an online censorship tool from China.
Digital terrorism
The firewall comes as the Pakistani military faces severe criticism online for its alleged role in keeping former Prime Minister Imran Khan behind bars while his party continues to face a crackdown.
The military, which denies meddling in political affairs, has lately been using the term “digital terrorists” for online critics.
“Just as terrorists use weapons to get their demands met, digital terrorists use negative propaganda and fake news on social media platforms, mobiles and computers to create despondency to get their demands met,” Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said at a news conference this week.
Chaudhry said the military had become the sole target of digital terrorists.
He blamed a “certain” political party without naming Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, which has a formidable social media presence.
This week, police raided the PTI’s headquarters in the Pakistani capital, detaining its chief spokesperson and several other media team members, accusing them of running an “anti-state campaign.”
Service disruption
On Thursday, Pakistani media outlet The News reported recent problems users encountered in sharing content via the Meta-owned messaging app Whatsapp were a result of a test run of the firewall.
Refusing to comment on the implementation process of the firewall, the spokesperson of the independent Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said the regulator did not receive any reports of service disruptions.
“Our systems were clear. They were up and running. They did not falter anywhere,” Malahat Obaid told VOA, adding that the problems users faced could be because of a technical glitch.
Cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks recorded five incidents of authorities restricting internet access so far this year. The disruptions occurred around February’s general elections.
