The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology, while demanding an immediate solution to the problem of internet and social media shutdown across the country, has issued instructions to the concerned authorities to solve the problems related to the internet on priority basis in the next two weeks. do
These instructions, issued on August 15, 2024, came after the committee members raised the issue of internet and social media applications being affected across the country.
On the other hand, Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) said in a press release on Thursday that the slowness of the Internet caused by the firewall could cause a loss of up to 300 million dollars to the Pakistani economy.
Pasha Senior Vice Chairman Ali Ehsan said that firewalls have already led to long-term outages in the Internet and business activities have been completely disrupted due to the uncertain performance of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). But there is a risk of closure.
Last day, the officials of the Ministry of Information Technology and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority appeared in the Senate Committee meeting chaired by Pakistan People’s Party Senator Palusha Khan.
Committee members condemned the internet shutdown, citing ongoing losses to businesses (digital economy) dependent on IT infrastructure, particularly ‘e-commerce’ enterprises.
Participating in the discussion, Senator Afnanullah Khan, who belongs to the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-N, said that “due to the slowness of the Internet, at least 50 crores of rupees are being lost every day, while many ‘e-commerce’ people International business organizations have also terminated business ties with Pakistan.
Senator Afnan also mentioned public complaints regarding uploading and downloading on WhatsApp and social media platforms and said that apart from business segments, common users were equally affected.
Senator Humayun Mohmand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said that if the national decision-makers cannot provide employment to the youth, then the facility of selling online services should not be withdrawn.
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Responding to the concerns raised in the meeting, Secretary representing the Ministry of Information Technology, Ayesha Humira Chaudhry, said that the services of mobile operators have been affected by slow internet and the reason for this is possibly a ‘technical problem’. He assured the standing committee members that the issue would be resolved soon.
He said that ‘Internet slowness is a problem faced by mobile phone users while broadband users are not affected by it.’
On this occasion, a surprising thing came out that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority officials told the Senate Standing Committee that ‘they have not received any kind of complaint about internet service from any part of the country.’
The Senate Standing Committee also called for a report on the economic losses caused by the Internet, but experts and senior officials from the PTA did not appear before the Standing Committee and hence the ‘firewall issue’. The debate was adjourned without completing the agenda.
The authority had to present details related to the firewall before the standing committee, which called for an in-camera briefing (confidential details) on the matter.
The representatives of the Ministry of Information Technology and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority have denied the ban on the Internet, but the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP) in a statement last day criticized the slowness of the Internet. He called it a serious problem and strongly condemned it.
The representative body attributed the problem to the government’s policy of increased security and surveillance. The organization said that if this strategy persists, it will have irreparable serious economic consequences.
In a statement released, WISPAP Chairman Shehzad Arshad revealed that the internet speed has been reduced by 30 to 40 percent, which is affecting online businesses and people who are employed online. If reliable internet connections are not restored immediately, the digital economy will suffer further economic losses.
The issue has been raised by the Senate Standing Committee and the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan at a time when millions of people across the country have been restricted from accessing the Internet and have limited access to general communication or social media. Difficulties are being faced in the use of Especially in the dimensions of Pakistan, the users of rural and urban areas are more affected, who use the Internet (data connection) through mobile phones.
For the past several weeks, reports have been circulating in the media that Pakistan’s internet slowdown is actually related to the crackdown on political opposition and curbing social media, which has been attributed to alleged testing of internet firewalls.
The Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, which has condemned the ban on internet access across Pakistan, has also warned of dire economic consequences, calling it an unnecessary increase in security and unlimited surveillance.
On August 15 itself, the third important development was that the internet shutdown was challenged in the Lahore High Court.
The petitioner, who approached the High Court, said that the Internet has been slowed down in Pakistan due to unknown reasons and online (IT) businesses are affected by the internet shutdown. On one hand, the world is relying on the latest technologies and the fastest internet is being invented, while on the other hand, the speed of the internet in Pakistan has been slowed down, due to which the digital economy sectors are on the verge of destruction.
The petitioner, Shakeel Ahmed, demanded the government to issue orders to end the blocking of social media resources and internet slowdown.
When contacted about this, Minister of State for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima said, “Complaints of slow internet are being received and the government knows that digital economy and digital government depend on good internet connectivity. Happens at speed.’
The Minister of State said that the data of the last two weeks has been requested from the PTA. By looking at the data traffic, the internet speed will know how much it has decreased.
In response to a question, he said that ‘the government will soon announce the launch of 5G (high-speed) internet and efforts and preparations for the auction are underway in this regard.’
He further said that ‘firewall is related to cyber security and not only in Pakistan but in all countries in the world firewall is being used.’
According to Shaza Fatima: ‘Before the firewall, there was a web management system. The government is updating this outdated system to avoid more serious cyber security attacks in the near future.
He further said that due to the lack of firewall, the number of cyber attacks on Pakistan will be released soon.
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2024-08-17 19:49:27