IHC to take up X ban plea in February

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has fixed February 6 for hearing a petition challenging the ban on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The petition, which was last heard on April 17, 2024, faced several delays with the first hearing. May 2 and June 11, 2024 are also being postponed. The court granted the miscellaneous application for early hearing in November. 22, 2024. IHC Chief Justice Aamir Farooq, after reviewing the case, directed that the petition be heard after the winter vacation. In March, the Home Ministry admitted to the Sindh High Court (SHC) that X had been formally blocked in February. Access to the platform has been banned in various parts of Pakistan since February 17 based on intelligence reports. However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar made it clearThat the ban on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, was imposed due to national security concerns to limit freedom of expression. Notably, Pakistan ranks in the bottom 12 percent globally for both mobile and broadband internet speeds, as reported by Okla’s Speedtest Global Index. As of October, the country ranked 100th out of 111 countries in mobile internet speed and 141st out of 158 countries in broadband speed.. For the past several months, users across the country have been facing slow connections, including difficulty downloading media on WhatsApp and intermittent connectivity. The problems The disruptions have raised concerns, especially as Pakistan faces reports of internet access bottlenecks and limited virtual private networks. (VPN) use. VPNs, which many Pakistanis rely on to access blocked websites such as X (formerly Twitter),