The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has rejected the objections of the Registrar’s Office to the treatment of a petition that seeks to challenge the imposition of a firewall and the slowdown of internet services that has ensued. The court has now listed the petition for hearing on Tuesday.
The case was headed by the Chief Justice of IHC Aamer Farooq; the petitioner presented by her counsel Imaan Mazari rebutted that the objections leveled were merely frivolous. In the petition,, the citizens urged the court to halt the implementation of the firewall by arguing that it infringes on the various fundamental rights of the citizens. It also requires that the implementation of any firewall must be done with the assistance of all the stakeholders and with adequate precautions regarding basic rights.
The other prayer made in the petition is that the Constitution be interpreted to include access to the internet as a human right as this is crucial in supporting people’s existence.
Of the objections that were raised Justice Farooq said that three of them would be considered as legal objections while the fourth one was touching on the language used in the petition as improper. About the description of the language used in the course of the incident, the petitioner’s counsel pointed to the nature of the utterance which was transmitted via the Twitter account that had been cited in the petition and did not otherwise pose any mysteries as to the nature of the content. Subsequently, the court expunged the objections and set the hearing for the next day in the chosen case.
The chief points of the case are the installation of the firewall and the interruptions in internet connection that it has entailed, and the petition was filed by a senior journalist. Hence, it comes with several respondents, which are the secretaries of the cabinet division, the IT ministry, the interior ministry, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and the Ministry of Human Rights.
