Pak to lift Youtube ban after Id?

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to lift ban on YouTube after Id holidays, officials said.

The Id holidays will end on Sunday as Monday with be the first working day after four closed days.

“The Prime Minister will take a final decision on re- opening of YouTube in Pakistan after Id in accordance with the rec- ommendations prepared by an inter- ministerial committee,” said a government official. According to an announcement made by ministry of information technology ( MoIT), the minister of state for IT& T, Anusha Rahman, has directed to convene inter ministerial committee ( IMC) for web evaluation, which shall be presented with the findings in a meeting in August after Id for deliberation and dis- cussion.

“The IM committee shall then make recommendations accordingly whether or not to review the restriction of the YouTube website in Pakistan, which recommendation shall thereafter be placed for approval of the PM,” it said.

The government had blocked access to YouTube on September 17, 2012 after the website refused to filter sacrilegious con- tent in Pakistan.

Prior to this, the Pakistan Telecommun- ication Authority acting on orders of the SC, had started blocking links carrying the video.

However, innumerable instances of videos being uploaded largely nullified the PTA’s attempts.

The government also requested Google to block the clips from being accessed in Pakistan, but the Internet giant did not entertain the request saying it did not have localised services in the country which would allow location- based blocking.

The government finally imposed a blanket block on YouTube on September 17.

Besides Pakistan, countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Iran have also blocked You- Tube for not removing anti- Islam videos.