344
Pakistan
attacks. One of the most persecuted groups in Pakistan is the Ahmadiyya community.
Ahmadis, who are declared non-Muslim by Pakistani law, suffer persecution and widespread censorship under Pakistan ’ s blasphemy laws for their beliefs.
30 Most recently,
on May 28, 2010, terrorists carried out two attacks on Ahmadi places of worship,
killing more than 90 people.
31 In 2009 at least 50 members of the Ahmadiyya community were charged under the blasphemy law.
32 Since the amendment of the penal
code, there have been approximately 700 blasphemy cases. In January 2011, Salman
Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, was assassinated by one of his own guards,
who condemned the politician ’ s public opposition to the country ’ s blasphemy laws.
33
Actions taken by the government, especially in 2010, indicate a move toward a
centralized monitoring and fi ltering system that is easy to manipulate through vague
and easily amendable laws. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance (PECO)
came into effect on September 29, 2008.
34 The ordinance lays out offenses for electronic forgery, fraud, criminal data access, use of malicious code, cyber stalking, and
cyber terrorism. It grants the government the ability to amend and add rules to the
ordinance as it sees fi t, as long as the changes are published in the government newspaper, the Gazette of Pakistan .
35
In March 2010, the Pakistani government issued a directive allowing it to order
the PTA, “ in case of any national security situation, to order temporary or permanent
termination of telecom services of any service provider, in any part or whole of Pakistan. ”
36 On June 3, 2010, the Lahore High Court ordered the PTA and the MoIT to
devise methods to create a permanent system that would monitor and fi lter “ blasphemous and objectionable content ” on the Internet. By June 23, 2010, reports emerged
that the PTA was in the process of developing regulations to defi ne the fi ltering
process, and that suggestions were made to create a centralized fi lter to block objectionable material.
37 These were immediately followed by orders from the Lahore High
Court to the MoIC to ban 17 Web sites and to monitor Amazon, Bing, Google,
Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, and YouTube.
38 After the directive, evidence emerged that the
PTCL was experimenting with transparent proxy servers in order to develop a more
sophisticated censorship system. The evidence indicated that the PTCL was testing an
advanced form of blocking known as CleanFeed, which would allow Pakistani authorities to block individual Web pages online as opposed to entire domains or Web
sites.
39
In November 2010, the Pakistani government released a draft policy that laid down
the framework for a national plan to transform Pakistan ’ s IT industry.
40 The draft
policy uses vague language open to interpretation and misuse. It gives indirect control
of the Country Code Top Level Domain for Pakistan, .pk, to the government. The
draft policy also gives the government a free hand in enacting and amending legislation to support its goals, mentioning its ability to “ take corrective actions as necessary. ”
41 According to the draft, free access to information and the sharing of divergent
Pakistan
attacks. One of the most persecuted groups in Pakistan is the Ahmadiyya community.
Ahmadis, who are declared non-Muslim by Pakistani law, suffer persecution and widespread censorship under Pakistan ’ s blasphemy laws for their beliefs.
30 Most recently,
on May 28, 2010, terrorists carried out two attacks on Ahmadi places of worship,
killing more than 90 people.
31 In 2009 at least 50 members of the Ahmadiyya community were charged under the blasphemy law.
32 Since the amendment of the penal
code, there have been approximately 700 blasphemy cases. In January 2011, Salman
Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, was assassinated by one of his own guards,
who condemned the politician ’ s public opposition to the country ’ s blasphemy laws.
33
Actions taken by the government, especially in 2010, indicate a move toward a
centralized monitoring and fi ltering system that is easy to manipulate through vague
and easily amendable laws. The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance (PECO)
came into effect on September 29, 2008.
34 The ordinance lays out offenses for electronic forgery, fraud, criminal data access, use of malicious code, cyber stalking, and
cyber terrorism. It grants the government the ability to amend and add rules to the
ordinance as it sees fi t, as long as the changes are published in the government newspaper, the Gazette of Pakistan .
35
In March 2010, the Pakistani government issued a directive allowing it to order
the PTA, “ in case of any national security situation, to order temporary or permanent
termination of telecom services of any service provider, in any part or whole of Pakistan. ”
36 On June 3, 2010, the Lahore High Court ordered the PTA and the MoIT to
devise methods to create a permanent system that would monitor and fi lter “ blasphemous and objectionable content ” on the Internet. By June 23, 2010, reports emerged
that the PTA was in the process of developing regulations to defi ne the fi ltering
process, and that suggestions were made to create a centralized fi lter to block objectionable material.
37 These were immediately followed by orders from the Lahore High
Court to the MoIC to ban 17 Web sites and to monitor Amazon, Bing, Google,
Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, and YouTube.
38 After the directive, evidence emerged that the
PTCL was experimenting with transparent proxy servers in order to develop a more
sophisticated censorship system. The evidence indicated that the PTCL was testing an
advanced form of blocking known as CleanFeed, which would allow Pakistani authorities to block individual Web pages online as opposed to entire domains or Web
sites.
39
In November 2010, the Pakistani government released a draft policy that laid down
the framework for a national plan to transform Pakistan ’ s IT industry.
40 The draft
policy uses vague language open to interpretation and misuse. It gives indirect control
of the Country Code Top Level Domain for Pakistan, .pk, to the government. The
draft policy also gives the government a free hand in enacting and amending legislation to support its goals, mentioning its ability to “ take corrective actions as necessary. ”
41 According to the draft, free access to information and the sharing of divergent