KARACHI: A meeting was held in Karachi with Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah in the chair to review the law and order situation which decided to impose a three-month ban on instant messaging and voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) clients Skype, Viber and other networks such as Tango in province for security reasons.
Officials including the additional Inspector General Karachi, Director General Rangers and representatives of intelligence agencies were also present in the meeting.
“Terrorists and criminal elements are using these networks to communicate after the targeted operation was launched,” Provincial Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said after the meeting, adding that that the Home Secretary would contact Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to have these networks banned in the province.
The move by the Sindh government comes the same day as Freedom House, an independent watchdog organisation, launched a report ranking Pakistan among the bottom 10 countries on net freedom.
The report stated that various political and social obstacles to net freedom have been put in place by successive governments in the name of fighting terrorism.
