Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday said that publishing of blasphemous contents was an unforgivable offense. The Prime Minister asked the government authorities responsible for monitoring social media to remove blasphemous content.
Statement by PM to Remove Blasphemous Content
A statement was issued by the Prime Minister to remove blasphemous content from social media.
“The blasphemous content on social media is a nefarious conspiracy to hurt the religious sentiments of entire Muslim Ummah. The matter has already been taken by the judiciary.”
Actions Recommended to Remove Blasphemous Content
The Prime Minister asked the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to acquire all means necessary to remove blasphemous content from social media. He also directed the authorities to approach relevant international social media websites for the removal of such content from the internet.
He also ordered to take disciplinary actions against the people behind the publishing of the blasphemous content.
“Those responsible for blasphemy should be traced and punished according to the law.”
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also wants the government to determine those individuals who use blasphemy law for their personal gains.
The PM said that Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is the benefactor of entire humanity. Prime Minister will seek daily updates on the issue of removing blasphemous content from social media.
Facebook Helping to Remove Blasphemous Content
The Chairman of PTA was present at a court hearing a few days ago. He told the court that the task to remove blasphemous content from Facebook was not easy. He mentioned that Facebook had to go through around 1.4 billion pages to remove blasphemous content, but these pages are still accessible via proxies.
Justice Siddique, in response to the details shared by the PTA Chairman, asked the authorities to set up teams for monitoring blasphemous content to ensure its timely removal.
Chaudhry Nisar on Blocking Offensive Content
HoursTV.com covered the reaction of Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar after the IHC orders on removing blasphemous content from the social media. The Interior Minister threatened to completely block social media websites in Pakistan if they failed to stop its users from publishing offensive content.
A petition against Facebook is also filed to close it in Pakistan totally. The petition seeks complete ban of the social media website in Pakistan and threatens to run a country-wide campaign if the court cannot enforce the ban. The Pakistani government has banned several websites before including Facebook. Many sites were shut down for an extended time with YouTube ban extending to several years.
