Telecommunication authority clarifies: X still unavailable across Pakistan

Confused Pakistanis finally got an answer on whether X was back—and it was a no. The telecommunications authority clarified later on Thursday that the social media platform was still inaccessible to citizens.

The clarification came following a day-long confusion, triggered by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority's (PTA) counsel misinforming the court that the notification to ban the platform had been withdrawn.

Following the court hearing, the social media platform briefly sprung to life in Pakistan but became inaccessible again.

In a petition, challenging the internet shutdown and restricting access to social media platforms, filed by lawyer and political activist Jibran Nasir, the PTA counsel told the court that the notification had been withdrawn.

However, a second PTA lawyer made no mention of this information as the court heard a separate petition filed against the ban on X by journalists, through their lawyer Abdul Moiz Jafferii.

“The PTA lawyer in a connected petition said that his instructions were that the February 17 letter through which X was banned has been withdrawn,” Jaferii clarified in a video widely shared on social media.

“But the PTA lawyer in our case gave no such statement,” he added.

“However, on the basis of the other lawyer’s statement, the court noted in the connected petition that the ban has been withdrawn, which means access to X is restored… this is the government’s position,” Jaferii explained.

He added that the court then disposed of the [connected] petition and scheduled the journalists’ petition for two weeks later for more clarity and arguments.

One of the petitioners in the SHC case, journalist Zebunnisa Burki told that "this is the sort of frustrating running around in circles that we have come to expect from a government that neither seems to be interested in helping people sort this mess out nor in coming clean that there IS a mess to begin with."

She added: "Imagine the gymnastics that have been performed in this whole fiasco: first they deny X is banned; then they kind of say OK it is; then they say no it wasn't us; then it's blamed on the internet....it goes on and on in this unending loop."

She referred also to the simultaneous firewall situation which she said just added to the misery. The only thing to do however, she said, is to "keep pressing on with these cases and pestering the state to verbalize its role in shutting off communication channels -- whether X or any other."

The X ban

X has been inaccessible to people in Pakistan for the last seven months.

The disruption started on February 17, but it was not until a month later the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which regulates internet services in the country, confirmed that there was in fact an actual ban in place.

The ban has been challenged in various courts, including the Sindh High Court and the Islamabad High Court.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry in a response submitted to the Islamabad High Court has said that X was banned in the larger interest of national security and the platform's refusal to block "unlawful content."

Interestingly, government departments have been using Virtual Private Networks (VPN), which let you sidestep website blocks, to post and make announcements on X.

Rights activists have denounced the ban saying it tramples on press freedom and the right to information.