The Sindh High Court (SHC) has sought an explanation from the federal caretaker government over the suspension of internet services on the polling day (February 8, 2024), according to a report by Dawn.com.
In a major development Wednesday, the SHC heard three petitions against internet outages in the weeks leading up to the elections. The court expressed displeasure at the suspension of cellular internet services that occurred on the elections day, which caused an uproar around the country and cast doubts on the government’s promises of holding “free and free elections”.
“Why are you making a spectacle of yourself in front of the world?” SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi remarked as quoted by the publication.
The frequent outages were challenged in court by lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir, who contested the elections as an independent candidate; advocate Hyder Raza; and the Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan.
The petitions were filed against the country’s telecoms watchdog, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and the ministries concerned. NetBlocks, an organisation that tracks internet outages worldwide, reported multiple connectivity disruptions before and on the day of the polls.
Three days before the elections, caretaker Interior Minister Murtaza Solangi assured the public there would be no internet disruption on February 8, 2024. He did say, however, that internet would be shut down if a formal request was received from a certain district or province facing threat.
Despite adding that no official decision regarding communication shutdown had been taken by the government, mobile internet services were blocked on the polling day, leading to a barrage of concerns among voters about a potential manipulation of election at certain polling stations. Citing potential “terrorist incidents”, the government failed to issue a satisfactory response or justify the controlled outage.
The suspension was carried out despite the SHC’s prior orders directing the PTA to ensure uninterrupted internet access until the day of the elections. The telecom regulator had also assured citizens that there would be internet shutdown on February 8. But the prolonged connectivity outages and the PTA’s bizarrely surreptitious response that it had received no directives from the government to block cellular internet services on the election day only raised further questions on transparency during polls.
Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), too, released a statement that left people scratching their heads. The ministry claimed there had been “no nationwide internet shutdown” in Pakistan. The ministry added the instances of internet suspension were “not even factual” and that “only mobile services were suspended for the day to avoid terrorist incidents on the polling day”. The press statement insinuated that the statements of condemnation regarding mobile internet suspension by “certain countries and organizations” were released to taint the “peacefully and successfully” held polls in Pakistan.
