PRESS RELEASE
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dr. Sania Nishtar, Minister of Science and Technology to appear
today in the Lahore High Court in YouTube Case i.e. Bytes For All v. Federation
of Pakistan
Yasser Latif Hamdani, Counsel for Petitioner organization Bytes For All,
says that the YouTube ban takes away the right of Muslims to respond to
scurrilous attacks on Islam and the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
LAHORE: Dr. Sania Nishtar will appear in the court of
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah at the Lahore High Court in reference to the
ongoing YouTube Case i.e. Bytes For All v. Federation of Pakistan 958/2013 to
explain the Ministry of Information Technology’s position on the banning of
YouTube. The Counsel for the Petitioners is Yasser Latif Hamdani, Advocate High
Court and a constitutional lawyer specializing in technology and internet
related matters. The Petitioner has filed a writ petition challenging the
internet curbs by the PTA, including but not limited to YouTube.
“The Petitioner’s point of view is that all internet curbs
are counterproductive and deprive Pakistanis the right to access of information
as well as the right to counter any propaganda against the country or against
what they believe in strongly,” said Mr. Hamdani in a statement released here
today. He continued: “Taking away
YouTube’s access is the modern equivalent of taking away the scholar’s
pen. Imagine if Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was
not allowed to respond to scurrilous attacks on the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in the 19th century. Islam has a tradition of free speech,
discourse and toleration that goes back 14 centuries and we should not abandon
that tradition now when we need our best and the brightest to defend, counter
and clarify the misconceptions about our great faith.”
Yasser Latif Hamdani also stated that while efforts are
underway to find a middle ground between internet freedom and offensive materials,
ultimately all curbs would hurt Pakistan more than it will hurt those who are
engaging in scurrilous and offensive rhetoric. “Our students, teachers and researchers have
been deprived of a great resource of knowledge and information. It hurts the
material progress of Pakistanis, a great majority of whom are Muslims,”
declared Mr. Hamdani. The PTA “made an
incorrect submission when they declared that they could not ban individual URLs
especially HTTPS URLs. The recent ban on
Beghairat Brigade’s video on vimeo shows that individual HTTPS URLs can be
easily blocked,” he continued. He was of
the view that the across the board block on YouTube, therefore, was unjustified.
The Court has already begun exploring various ways in which
Google, the parent organization of YouTube, can be given Intermediary Liability
Protection, so that it may be allowed to come and introduce Youtube.com.pk
domain which would allow the reopening of YouTube. Google is set to appear in
the court on May 17, 2013.
