YouTube Ban in Pakistan!

In the last few hours there has been a flurry of emails flying around about the ban on YouTube in Pakistan. Tried to visit the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority site at http://pta.gov.pk, however the site appears down. Though I did manage to obtain the following circular by way of my colleague, and partner-in-crime, iFaqeer.

Here it clearly stipulates the block of a specific YouTube URL, as it contains "offensive" material, .Without a doubt in mind the content is offensive, it is a tasteless video posted by some no good for nothing twerp, who goes by the name conterminatiediehard. However, it doesn't justify a cart-Blanche ban on the entire YouTube site. Let me remind you this isn't the first time PTA has acted hastily.

Users subscribing to the Internet through PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation Limited), a semi-Government Corporation, have been getting the following message today if they tried to access YouTube:

> ------------------------------------------------------
> Dear Internet Users
>
> Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
> (www.pta.gov.pk)has directed all ISPs of the country
> to block access
> to www.youtube.com web site for containing
> blasphemous
> web content/movies.
>
> The site would remain blocked till further orders
> from
> PTA. Meanwhile, Internet users can write to
> youtube.com to remove the objectionable web
> content/movies because this removal would enable
> the authorities to order un-blocking of this web
> site.
>
> Best Regards
>
> Manager
> Technical Assistance Center
> Micronet Broadband Pvt. Ltd.
> Islamabad
> --------------------------------------------------

Other Blogs that are reporting:
iFaqeer
TeethMaestro
Zahir Kidvai's blog
PkPolitics
TechPedia
NaiTazi
Pakistan Latest
Pakistaniat
Rohan Pinto Blog
Muziq.NET
Adnan's Crazy Blog World
Just Like That
Quita's Weblog

Situation Update - Saturday, Feb 23rd, 1:32 am (US Pacific)

Just in, YouTube is accessible in Karachi, however in the Islamabad, and Peshawar area's it is blocked. It may very well be blocked specifically on the networks that operate through PTCL! Stay tuned for more updates, right here on The Siliconstani! - AR

Traditional Media Reports - Saturday, Feb 23rd, 2:25 am (US Pacific)

Daily Times
Rediff
Sify News
TamilStar

From the Doorstep kutchari:

Feb 23, 2:28 am: The general opinion in the air is that the YouTube ban was prompted in light of the large number videos pertaining to the recent elections showing up on the site. Presumably an attempt to cover up any election rigging that may become evident.

Feb 23, 10:15 am: [Courtesy Beena Sarwar] The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) "directed all the Internet service providers of the country to block access to the video-sharing website `Youtube' for containing blasphemous content. The order, issued by the director enforcement agency, says that the ratio of `non-Islamic objectionable video' has increased on the website. Following the order, all local ISPs have blocked the website from their servers," according to a news report. Details at
http://www.teeth. com.pk/blog/

However, the real reason may have been the postings of vote rigging. Someone sent links that circumvented YouTube:

http://208.65. 153.251
http://208.65. 153.253
http://208.65. 153.238

Another post sent out the following links:

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=j444heT4o14
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=6TPUHHFky38

(Listen to the part where the undercover woman says about ID card numbers, "ID card number koyi bhi daal dein, kis nay check kerna hai?", and the voting officer says, "Jo kerta hai ker lay check! Hehe!")

[End Beena's report]

Whatever the reason, there is no excuse, whatsoever, to ban an entire site, it proves nothing other than an utter disrespect for the the will of the nation and the peoples freedom of expression. This Government has made a sham of things - destroying institution after institution. Bugger the lofty rhetoric about how the present regime has brought about "grassroots democracy", "freed the media", "transformed the economy" - the next person who attempts to support "them" with such reason, seriously, s(he) will get a tight slap from me. It's nothing but bogus rhetoric, sugar quoted in a facade of "intellectualism", as the saying goes 'even the devil can quote scripture, doesn't mean (s)he is a saint', does it?. Who gives a dam whether the recent elections fair, free, and peaceful - it is a well known fact tat the Q's and General's loyalists attempted to skew the polls in there favor - though, to their dismay, despite rigging, the polls express the publics disdain for them. Now it's time for the General to accept defeat and step aside...

Sunday, February 24th:

YouTube suffered a two-hour long, system-wide outage on Sunday that the company said was triggered by a network based in Pakistan.

"For about two hours, traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous Internet Protocols," said YouTube spokesperson Ricardo Reyes in a statement "Many users around the world could not access our site. We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan. We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again."
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9877614-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2

Google, the owner of YouTube, blamed the outage on "erroneous internet protocols", sourced in Pakistan. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7262071.stm

Monday, February 25:

"The telecom company that carries most of Pakistan's traffic, PCCW, has found it necessary to shut Pakistan off from the Internet while they filter out the malicious routes that a Pakistani ISP, PieNet, announced earlier today. Evidently PieNet took this step to enforce a decree from the Pakistani government that ISP's must block access to YouTube because it was a source of blasphemous content. YouTube has announced more granular routes so that at least in the US they supercede the routes announced by PieNet. The rest of the world is still struggling."
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/25/1322252

Tuesday, February 26th:

Government lift's ban on YouTube. Google, the owner of YouTube confirms service has been resorted in the country, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7262071.stm

Better late, than never, though I am afraid to wonder what damage has this incident done to to investor confidence. Not good I would say. Who in their right mind would host their web business through Pakistani IP addresses, not me, and I, or at least I would hope to am a staunchly patriotic Pakistani. However, don't get me wrong, I will continue use Pakistan resources to develop my business, but will not allow my web resources to go through Pakistani controlled IP space.

Tuesday, February 26th, 5:21 pm (US Pacific):

The Ex-pat community in the Silicon Valley is enraged. Strongly condemning the Government of Pakistan, not to mention many have called for a law suite against the GoP. See the following thread from the SV-PAK discussion group (names and emails suppressed):

SV-PAK wrote:

I am with u dude, I am all for suing the GOP and Pak Telecom and the fanatic Mullahs and while we are at it why not the Achmed dinijad or whatever the barbarian from Iran is called.

Go for it. - Imran Q.

SV-PAK wrote:

This is way too much. I'd urge Google to sue GoP and Pakistan Telecom
big time.

It is a double outrage: (a) The image of the self-destructing 'mawzlem'
street full of howling fanatics was used to (b) prevent people from
seeing videos depicting some dark deeds of Musharraf's government.

I'd say the EU should throw all its weight (and Euros) behind Holland
and Denmark in the name of free speech. After all, Iran has retaliated
with its own cartoons and Holocaust conference, so what more is there
to do in terms of tit for tat?

"IslamiyoN" ke moonh ko xoon lag chuka hai. Since they are able to
successfully intimidate dissenters and minorities in countries
including Pakistan, they now think their reach is global. - Usman Q.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq
Abdulrahman Rafiq has Copyright s to Siliconstani, Doorstep Kutchari
A special thanks iFaqeer and Moazzam Chaudry "MacGuj" for providing feedback.
All Rights Reserved 2008

Afganistan Enters the Internet Age...

A little while back I was browsing through RabitaZone's sitemeter account. You can see site visits from all over the globe - from Australia to Europe, including the Middle East. All looks normal, however there was one country you don't see a whole lot to often - Afghanistan.

Until today, I was unaware that there are Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in this desolate land, let alone Web users.

Upon further investigation I found to my amazement, at the Afghanistan Ministry of Communication and Information Technology the following "somewhat surprising" statistics,

Statistics

The following statistic updates every after 3 months.
Last updated on 02, Oct 2007

Landline Phones:	39,608
GSM Subscribers:	32,85,332
CDMA Subscribers:	43,646
ISP Companies:	17
GSM Companies:	04

Who would have imagined, a nation such as Afghanistan would have 17 ISPs! This may seem like a small number, it however shows great promise for this nation - paving the way for innumerable entrepreneurial opportunities.

Copyright C. AbdulRahman Rafiq

Bilawal Zardari to be named PPP Chairperson

It is rumored that Bilawal Zardari, the 19 year old eldest son of Benazir Bhutto, will be named the new PPP chairperson, as per Ms. Bhutto's will.

Personally, I think this is ludicrous. Democracy starts at home. First democratize your own house, then the country. Nominating Bilawal, Benazir Bhutto's son, goes against everything she, and her late father Z.A.Bhutto have worked and died for. This would be a reckless move, not to mention a severe set back for the party as a whole. How can you talk about democracy for a nation, when your own party is run in an authoritarian fashion?

I would urge the PPP Central Executive Committee to reconsider, hold internal party elections, as is done in other such organizations around the world. It's time the Party open it's doors, and truely become the Peoples' Party - no more dynasty rule!

Copyright C. AbdulRahman Rafiq

Situation Update - Karachi Tense - December, 29, 2007

Word from the journalist community: About 75% of the rioting that has occurred in the aftermath of Ms. Bhutto's assassination, was out a sense of genuine rage by supporters. The remaining 25% is suspected to be the work miscreants.

Saturday, December, 29, 2007, 4:30 pm PST

I just got back from urgent grocery shopping, the general feeling outside is tense, a few general stores have opened, prices on major commodities items are jacked up, as expected. People are out and about but there is a sense of nervousness in the air.

There are signs of the rioting all around - on Shamshir, Defence Phase V you have quite a lot of damage. Traffic lights smashed and burned to the ground, the UBL bank in the Khada Market has all its windows smashed. The road to Gizri Village is closed - there are reports of sporadic rioting. There is a strong Makrani presence in Gizri, many of whom are PPP supporters.

Saturday, December, 29, 2007, 1:30 pm PST

Following is a situation update from one Syed Asif Alam, President and Founder of the Association of Pakistani Professionals (AOPP).

Saturday, 1:30pm PST..

...and two days after I am still in a shock; I was stuck in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, had to stay there overnight. We put our two kids in the car the next morning at 7 am and headed towards my parents house in Defense Phase V. We found pockets that could easily depict a war zone. Long lines of burn cars, at times more then 80-100 cars. I asked my wife to keep both the kids in the kneel down position in the back seat.

I ventured out few minutes ago (Saturday) and all the shops are still closed! Defense is usually unharmed by the Karachi violence but this time all the shops in this area is also closed. You can see few burned cars, broken banks and some shops that were attacked..

More Karachi updates can be read at Karachi MetroBlog.

To submit addition updates, email arafiq786@yahoo.com, or submit a comment to this post.

Bhutto Laid to Rest....The Country Mourns it's Slow Death...

At 4:45pm Pakistan Time, the body of the two term Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest at Ghari Kudha Baksh, the Bhutto families ancestral graveyard.

A sad day for the nation, the death of a leader, mind you the only charismatic leader who was loved by many. Such leaders are hard to come by in the world, in Pakistan they are virtually non-existent. That is, leaders who can rally the crowds, give the people a feeling of purpose and belonging. With the demise of Ms. Bhutto, there is no one who can match her dynamism as a leader of the people.

Democracy is dead, whether the elections continue as scheduled, or are postponed what does it matter? The results have been predetermined? No Benazir, no Nawaz, who else is there other than the Religious right, and Musharraf's King's group. Pakistan's future is a bleak one, with little hope, illadvised policies by usurping ruler and authoritarian men at the helm have left the nation destitute. We are our own worst enemy, slowly digging ourselves to a slow death - from constitutional tampering to the destruction of the judiciary - what good is a nation without it's core democratic institutions?

Copyright C. AbdulRahman Rafiq

Shattered Hopes - A Nation Cries!

The nation weeps at shattered dreams and aspirations. Lost hope for a better tomorrow, a democratic Pakistan. None can deny the fact that Benazir Bhutto represented a symbol of Hope for the nation - for peoples rule. Now who will step up to the plate and fill the power vacuum?

With the demise of Ms. Bhutto, the leader of the most popular political party in Pakistan democracy seems like a fallacy. "Illadvised policies of the past, and severe polarization under Military rule have led to the circumstances behind today's tragedy. We have become accustomed to violence, to suicide blasts, and the usurping of rules and rights by strong men at the helm. Today, the nation paid a price" commented by SupportPakistan.org. As Nawaz Sharif correctly stated, something unthinkable has happened in Rawalpindi this evening. The country appear to be on the brink of disaster. Hospitals and Government buildings are up in flames, roads are littered with burning cars, buses and tires. Enraged, and emotionally charged political workers are swarming the streets of Pakistan. from Karachi to Peshawar, the nation is semblance of a war zone.

Today the people made an outcry. It is time for the nation to wake up from it's slumber, rise up as a united front against injustices perpetuated against them.

While many may disagree with Benazir's ideological beliefs, or argue her tenure was short lived with little to show for. Undeniably, she was the most capable leaders who spend 25 out of 30 years of her political career in the opposition, championing the cause of democracy with extraordinary fervor against Military dictatorships. This is the legacy Benazir will be remembered for.

Todays tragedy have left many in a state of shock and utter disbelief. Nerves have been touched hard, people, whether they be friends or foe acknowledge the symbolism Benazir represented.

For news updates and commentaries from the ground visit...

Karachi MetroBlog
Islamabad MetroBlog
Lahore MetroBlog
Teeth Maestro's (Awab Alvi) Blog
All-Things-Pakistan (Pakistaniat.com)
Benazir Pays with life for Democracy - Beena Sarwar
DAWN News updates

Copyright C. AbdulRahman Rafiq