Facebook containing sacrilegious material still accessible in Pakistan

KARACHI - Pakistan’s inter-ministerial committee is analysing all possible measures to block new links to the social networking site Facebook, which contains sacrilegious material. Information Technology Ministry sources pointed that pages carrying ‘blasphemous content’ are still accessible in the country.

Sources said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) discovered the pages a few days ago and later informed the IT Ministry to decide on the issue.

“The ministry is going to block all such material containing blasphemous material as soon as it receives recommendations on the modus operandi,” said Nagibullah Malik, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication Secretary.

He added that the ministry had approached the management of Facebook over the issue, and had directed it to take “prompt action” against the page, the Daily Times reports.

“The ministry had raised the same issue with the Facebook management in May 2010, when the website was blocked in Pakistan. It was directed to stop all such activities hurting the sentiments of Pakistani subscribers,” he said. “The ministry and its subordinate authorities will not tolerate websites that have blasphemous content”, Malik said.

The latest page carrying blasphemous content appeared on Facebook recently, urging subscribers to mark the September 11 attack anniversary.

So far the page has 1,726 fans from across the world, but its wall also contains messages on religious tolerance and harmony particularly from Muslims. A couple of pages have also been launched on Facebook to condemn it.

Pakistani authorities earlier blocked Facebook from May 19 to 30, following the directives of Lahore High Court (LHC). (ANI)