PM of Pakistan orders Wikipedia to be unblocked

Wikipedia –

Prior to blocking Wikipedia last week, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had given the website’s editors 48 hours to erase any “blasphemous” content.

Just days after the online encyclopedia was prohibited for having “blasphemous content,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister on February 6 instructed authorities to unblock Wikipedia, the government reported.

In Pakistan, which has a majority of Muslims, blasphemy is a touchy subject, and social media behemoths Facebook and YouTube have both been previously banned for posting material that was deemed sacrilegious.

A copy of the directive that said, “The Prime Minister is happy to direct that the website (Wikipedia) may be restored with immediate effect,” was tweeted by Minister of Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb.

Prior to blocking Wikipedia last week, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) offered the website’s editors 48 hours to erase any “blasphemous” material.

Without providing any further details regarding the content in question, an agency spokeswoman had stated on Saturday that Wikipedia will “remain blocked until they delete all the harmful material.”

The directive issued by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, which was published on Monday, stated that the committee of three government ministers was to investigate the PTA’s decision to restrict Wiki.

According to the text, the group determined that the “unintended consequences of this blanket ban… outweigh its benefits.”

---

Read Also – Former auditor of k. Kavitha arrested by CBI in Delhi Liquor Policy case

---

It was announced that a new ministerial committee will be formed to investigate the matter further.

Syed Tauqir Shah, the prime minister’s principal secretary, signed the document.

The non-profit organization in charge of running Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, stated in a statement over the weekend that the English-language edition of the site receives more than 50 million visitors in Pakistan each month.