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.

Mobile phone and internet services remained suspended for nearly 50 hours between 04-07 October in Islamabad/Rawalpindi amid opposition party PTI’s protest rallies. There were unconfirmed reports of partial disruptions of internet and social media apps in Lahore and Karachi.

Hundreds of PTI workers gathered in Islamabad over the weekend demanding release of their incarcerated leader Imran Khan. However, the government blocked entry points of Islamabad ahead of the protests to prevent them from entering the city. Clashes were also reported between PTI workers and law enforcement authorities resulting in injuries to 80 police officers and arrests of PTI workers. There were also speculations of PTI leader and KP Chief Minister’s Ali Amin Gandapur’s detention after he arrived in Islamabad with a convoy of 800 PTI activists from Peshawar to join the protest. Later, he mysteriously resurfaced in Peshawar after 31 hours denying any kidnapping or arrest by local authorities.

Al Jazeera reported on Pakistan’s development and planned implementation of its internet “firewall”, in an attempt to regulate and monitor the internet activities of users across Pakistan. Internet slowdowns and disruptions across Pakistan since July of this year have been attributed to trial runs of the firewall, though the Pakistani government has officially denied this being the case, instead blaming a number of factors, including underwater internet cables and “too many” people using VPNs within Pakistan.

Pakistan’s current attempt at a firewall incorporates Chinese technology (at a cost of 20-30 billion Pakistani rupees – or between US$ 72 to US$ 107 million) owing to that nation’s successful crackdown on freedom of expression online. According a source interviewed by Al Jazeera article, the new Pakistani firewall – once fully implemented – differs from previous attempts as the Chinese technology can allow the government to regulate and tackle websites and apps at a “granular level”. What the latter entails, as an ISP official told Dawn, is that the government can now block or restrict “access to single video or article”. Testing this new system usually takes place in a “sandboxed environment”, but the manner in which Pakistan’s internet system has been put together from tech sourced from numerous countries has meant that a large scale “live” test was needed, which the ISP official said explains the detrimental impact on internet speeds and access.

A tweet by the CEO and a founder of Nayatel, an internet service provider based out of Islamabad, claimed that electricity had been cut off in Islamabad’s Blue Area, the city’s major commercial area, and where “multiple data centers serving lifeline data and internet are located”, suggesting an attempt at an internet and telecoms blackout, possibly related to the PTI protests. Though power was eventually restored, the tweet noted that the private sector power company responsible for Islamabad, IESCO, did not respond for several hours, in spite of numerous calls and “personal visits” to their offices.