ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior Chairman Senator Abdul Rehman Malik urged for legislation on social media and to take strict legal action against those violating cyber laws of the country.
“While dealing with social media we should replicate the model of Saudi Arabia and UAE wherein all mediums of social media are in the control of government and even a single blasphemous word can’t be posted,” he said while talking to the newsmen after attending the meeting of the Senate Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication.
Rehman Malik said that even calls on WhatsApp and other social mediums are controlled in UEA and Saudi Arabia. He said that strict action should be taken against those who post and spread blasphemous, sectarian, offensive, and objectionable material. He expressed that no Muslim can bear blasphemous words about our beloved Prophet (PBUH). He said that government should talk to social media operators to open their offices in Pakistan that it could be made possible to remove such objectionable material immediately. While expressing his grave concerns over the misuse of social media in the country he said that thousands of fake social media accounts are running for different malicious purposes and spreading blasphemous and highly objectionable materials to create uncertainty and chaos among the public. He said that many are operating social media accounts with different names including the names of politicians are also used.
He said that we had arranged hardware for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that such objectionable and hatred materials could be removed and the accounts could be blocked immediately, however, about the fate of hardware, PTA can tell either it is operating or still under process. He said that a fake Twitter account is being run in the name of Aitzaz Ahsan on Twitter about which, he has lodged a complaint with the FIA and PTA several times but several months passed and the said fake account in Aitzaz Ahsan is still active and spreading materials with his name.
He said that he as Chairman of Senate Standing Committee on Interior has also taken the notice of the said fake account and has sought a report from FIA for discussion in the upcoming meeting. He said that the government should take up the charge sheet to the International Criminal Court for the trial of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Army Chief and all Indian authorities responsible for war crimes in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K).
“I already sent irrefutable evidence to Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the form of a Charge Sheet against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for war crimes in Indian Occupied Kashmir,” he said.
Rehman Malik said that revelation by Disinfolab EU and Arnab Goswami's WhatsApp chat leaks have exposed that Indian PM Narendra Modi was propagating against Pakistan while using the soils of European Union and other countries.
He expressed concerns and annoyance over the Ministry of Information Technology and telecommunication and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) for not paying the due amount to its pensioners despite committee’s clear directions and Senate decision.
Senator Rehman Malik said he suggested the committee to take stern action against those involved in siphoning off the PTET’s assets. “I suggest that after the due procedures we should forward the case to FIA. This is essentially needed as the PTET board and the PTCL management are not even following the decision of Supreme Court, Senate and this committee to pay the pensions as per law,” he said.
