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Anti-Islam Film: Islamabad to set up monitoring room for the web

The government of Islamabad on Friday decided to establish a control room under the supervision of PTA director, which will monitor round the clock and … Continue reading Anti-Islam Film: Islamabad to set up monitoring room for the web


The government of Islamabad on Friday decided to establish a control room under the supervision of PTA director, which will monitor round the clock and immediately block any anti-Islam and obscene material on the Web.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik chaired a high-level meeting, which was attended by interior secretary, IT secretary, PTA chairman, Ministry of Interior additional secretary, FIA director and other senior officers of the two ministries.

The meeting reviewed the available content on web pages in the context of a film that sparked riots across the Islamic world.

The meeting was told that so far PTA and IT Ministry had blocked 122 anti-Islamic attacks through websites in Pakistan.

Member (legal) Ministry of IT would head a team while Member (technical) TA, DG S&D, PTA and FIA director would be its members, which will carry out round-the-clock monitoring of all such sites and take remedial actions.

The meeting hoped that all web designers, web sites and social media would refrain from planting any such material which might hurt the feelings of Muslims.

General public was appealed that any such material on the Web must be reported immediately to the PTA. It was clarified that neither Youtube nor Facebook was blocked in the country.

While discussing the issue of blocking pre-paid SIMs, the meeting noted that there were 24 million mobile SIMs which were blocked on the recommendations of the Ministry of Interior and that nobody had claimed seven million mobile SIMs as they were either stolen or issued on fake IDs.

Increase in mobile phone sets with replicated IMEI numbers was also noticed and in this connection, FBR was directed to block the import of any such mobile phones. It was proposed that use of stolen mobile phones would be made non-bailable offence with seven years of imprisonment.

The meeting also decided to resubmit in parliament the already expired Cyber Agreement Ordinance.

Separately, the interior minister reviewed fire fighting and safety measures in Islamabad. It was noted with great concern that building owners were not fully cooperating with the authorities for implementing the said laws and hence proper evaluation of certain buildings was not possible, especially the internal safety of the buildings.

The Islamabad district magistrate was asked to immediately issue a binding provision under section 144 to allow the concerned authorities from the fire branch of the CDA and Islamabad administration to have proper survey done as per the international standards.

It was also noted that 50 percent of the fire incidents had taken place because of substandard electric wiring, hence it was made compulsory for buildings and houses in Islamabad to get certificate for satisfactory electric wiring material.

The interior secretary was directed to have the draft legislation (Amendment) whereby the violation of safety procedure shall be punishable for three years with Rs 0.5 million fine or ceasing of property.

The Islamabad chief commissioner was directed to appoint an electrical inspector who would be responsible to issue certificate about the quality of the electric wiring.