Confirming the directives from the Ministry of Interior, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) affirmed that it had indeed issued instructions to suspend mobile phone services on February 8, coinciding with the day of polling.
In its response presented to a Sindh High Court (SHC) bench on Tuesday, the authority underscored its obligation to follow the directives from the interior ministry, clarifying that it functioned solely as the implementing agency.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued notices to both the PTA and the information ministry in response to a plea challenging the perceived “ban” on the social media platform X.
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Under the leadership of Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, a two-judge SHC bench addressed identical petitions filed against the suspension of mobile internet and broadband services, as well as the outage of X/Twitter.
In response to a petition filed by activist Jibran Nasir concerning the closure of online services between December 2023 and January 2024, the PTA’s reply included a letter from the Ministry of Interior dated February 8. This correspondence contained directives to suspend “mobile services” due to concerns over the “security environment” stemming from a “surge in terrorist activities.”
Highlighting the necessity for a “temporary suspension of mobile services,” the letter instructed the PTA to direct cellular mobile operators to implement the suspension.
The PTA stated that it relayed the directive to the operators to suspend cellular data and call services nationwide (except Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir) at 5:39 am on the day of polling. They were instructed to restore services approximately 24 hours later following further directives from the ministry.
Asserting that the ministry, acting on behalf of the government, issues directives for the closure of network services, the PTA added that it is legally obliged to comply with such instructions based on reports from intelligence agencies.
The Ministry of Interior requested additional time to submit its response, leading the court to grant an extension until March 20.
