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”.