The federal government has decided to partially suspend internet and mobile services in Islamabad , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab amid the opposition party PTI’s planned protest for 24 November. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will activate its firewall for mobile internet service from November 22 and the aforesaid services will be suspended from November 23, added the sources.

The services will likely remain suspended unless PTI either calls off its protest or make it shorter. PTI has hinted at turning its protest into indefinite sit-in unless its incarcerated leader former PM Imran Khan was released.

On 19th November, the social media app bluesky was temporarily banned in Pakistan. Users reported that they were unable to access it without a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Bluesky offered similar features as X, allowing users to have access to another platform without having to use a VPN. There has been a worldwide shift from X, and an increase in bluesky users, after the nomination of Elon Musk, the owner of X, in the cabinet of the US president-elect, Donald Trump.  Many Pakistanis have recently signed up to bluesky. 

The recent suspension of the platform came a week after authorities decided to ban all unregistered VPN’s, which had also gained considerable popularity in recent months after the PTA banned X on the 17th of February, following the general elections. 

In what seems to be an attempt to retract its statement made earlier, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Chairman Dr Raghib Hussain Naeemi denied declaring the virtual private networks (VPNs) "un-Islamic" and blamed it on a "typo" for causing confusion in the council's decree amid the government's deadline to block all unregistered encrypted networks this month.

"No one has declared the VPNs against shariah or un-Islamic," said Naeemi in a press conference in Islamabad, adding: "A typing error in our previous statement created a misunderstanding after 'not' was omitted from it."

CII has come under a lot of criticism for its recent edict on VPNs. Senate Standing Committee called it “unreasonable” while renowned religious scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil termed it as a “narrow-minded stance”.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has partially suspended internet and mobile services since 15 November in several districts of Balochistan province to “ensure public safety and security”. While PTA did not specify the areas, these services reportedly remain suspended in various areas of Makran, Awaran, Chagai, Kharan, parts of Khuzdar, Kalat, Bolan, Harnai, Duki and some other areas which witnessed rising acts of terrorism in recent weeks.

The Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Cell summoned owners of two web platforms, Siyasat.pk and Raftar for allegedly “running continuous anti-state propaganda” on their platforms. Adeel Habib, the owner of Siyasat.pk, and Farhan Gauhar Mallick, the owner of Raftar, who reside in Karachi and Canada respectively, have been summoned to appear on November 20.

Owing to a serious data breach (in March) compromising the information of 2.7 million Pakistani citizens, six NADRA officials, including one grade-19 officer, were recently dismissed, according to the NADRA Chairman in a recent National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior meeting. However, members of the Standing Committee expressed frustration over zero repercussions for key officials involved in the leak and were contrarily even promoted in some cases. During the meeting, NADRA Chairman Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz highlighted budget constraints faced by the agency in light of its expansion plans especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and investments in new vehicles and equipment. 87% of NADRA’s Rs. 57 billion budget is allocated to salaries, which leaves little to spend on expansion and innovation.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has reportedly decided to block access to all the unregistered VPNs from 01 December. All the commercial entities, embassies have been asked to register their VPNs with PTA by 30 November. PTA has been pushing all to register their VPNs and occasionally dropped hints at banning unregistered VPNs without clarifying timelines. However, the decision to block VPNs came following its successful trial run of blocking them on 10 November using much talked about firewall. Since its trial run, government authorities seem to busy with building a narrative to justify the VPN regulation. PTA recently claimed that 20 million attempts were made recently to access pornographic websites via VPN. Interior Ministry also sought ban on VPNs citing their use by terrorist organisations.

In a briefing to the Senate, Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi revealed that FIA’s Cybercrime Wing (CCW) received 1,426 complaints related to hacked whatsapp accounts since July 1. Following these complaints, 549 hacked accounts were successfully restored from the registered complaints, while the CCW was currently processing a further 877 complaints, with 20 cases escalated to formal inquiries. Furthermore, Naqvi said 40 complaints remained unanswered and 817 were still in the verification stage.

Pakistan witnessed another round of mobile phone and internet disruptions. On 10 October, users of Zong cellular company faced disruptions to their mobile and data services in multiple cities, mostly in Karachi, reportedly owing to Web Management System/Firewall. Zong is one of the four cellular companies in Pakistan with a userbase of 26%. PTA officials confirmed that the firewall or the web management system was currently being installed and would be fully functional by end of October. Separately, internet and mobile data services were suspended in Peshawar and Khyber in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province amid a planned gathering of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement on 11-13 October to discuss local political, security and human rights situation faced by citizens. While the gathering concluded on 13 October, PTM claimed on 14 October that the mobile signals remained suspended in Peshawar and Khyber.

A cybercrime court awarded death penalty and imposed a fine of USD 2500 (PKR 700,000) to a resident of Gujjar Khan, Punjab after he was found guilty of hatespeech and blasphemy under Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act and Pakistan Penal Code. The convict will now have the option to challenge the verdict in High Court. Lower courts in Pakistan have a track record of awarding highest punishments to blasphemy accused.