Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Shazia Atta Marri on Wednesday complained about the slow internet speed in Pakistan.
Marri expressed her thoughts during the National Assembly session in Islamabad, “Internet services have been shut down in the country, but the Digital Nation Pakistan Act is being implemented in the country.
“It is laughable to me that we are bringing the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill despite the internet outages,” she lamented.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve heard about firewalls. Even now we’re not able to talk about e-commerce,” Marri claimed.
The blocking of social media platform “X” (formerly Twitter) took center stage in the National Assembly on Wednesday as members raised concerns about freedom of expression, slow internet speeds and wider implications for digital rights in Pakistan.
– IT Minister claims internet usage up 28% –
Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja told the House that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had blocked “X” on the instructions of the Ministry of Interior due to security concerns. She emphasized that the closure had nothing to do with restricting freedom of expression, adding that less than 2% of Pakistanis use the platform.
“If we wanted to limit freedom of expression, we would ban platforms like Facebook and TikTok, which are used by many more people,” argued Shaza Fatima.
It also claimed that internet usage and speed has increased by 28% recently, attributing the current slowdown to technical issues rather than intentional restrictions. “Today, freedom of speech is at its peak. The language used against us in this country is intolerable,” she insisted.
