The Pakistani government has intensified its attacks on Internet users’ usage of virtual private networks, or VPNs. Many VPN users do so in order to circumvent restrictions on different websites, most notably the Twitter/X ban that has been in effect since February 2024.
Interior Ministry’s ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the state-run telecom and internet regulator, stating that all VPNs not registered with the PTA must be shut down by November 30.
A few hours later in the day, the chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) made a statement in which he attempted to provide a thorough justification for his claim that VPNs were being used by Pakistanis to access porn websites.
Since porn was forbidden by religious law, anything that made it easier for people to access such forbidden content had to be outlawed.
This claim is just as accurate as the government’s claim that X is prohibited in Pakistan due to security concerns, even though the prime minister and cabinet and other senior government officials still use X using VPNs.
PM Shehbaz used same banned ‘X’ and prohibited ‘VPN’ to congratulate Donald Trump on winning US Elections 2024.
The reality is that such steps, especially those aimed at gaining a strict control over the media and information flow, frequently backfired because the public is not easily duped and realized that the actions were taken solely to further the interests of those who are in control and to extend their rule.
All of this conveys to the rest of the world that Pakistan is implementing policies that will actually drive its internet and online economy back two to three decades rather than advancing.
VPNs are used not just to see porn but also to access several foreign news websites that are unfairly blocked in Pakistan in order to regulate the flow of information. The list includes major websites from India, UK and US.
Internet outages and VPN prohibitions were among the major obstacles Pakistan’s IT industry had to deal with in 2024.
IT export firms and independent contractors who depend on dependable internet access for cross-border cooperation were most affected by these policies.
Such rules might imperil billions of dollars in income, according to the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), which warned that they jeopardize ambitious ambitions for IT exports.
Businesses had to deal with operational difficulties, decreased output, and eroded investor trust as private and secure digital tools like VPNs became more difficult to utilize.
These disruptions delayed international transactions in important industries like banking, slowed innovation, and made remote work challenging. In order to avoid such economic losses, P@SHA and other stakeholders requested the government to implement balanced regulatory measures that would simultaneously ameliorate security concerns and ensure continued digital operations.
Investors and the general public have more concerns about the future of digital Pakistan due to the existing leadership’s subservient behavior.
