On Tuesday, 9th May, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan was arrested by the official authorities of the country. The majority of Pakistan’s citizens are big supporters of Imran Khan and his political party so to show their anger, disappointment, and disagreement with the decision of the authorities, they started to call that day “Black Day”. What no one knew was that from 9th May till today, the 12th would literally go black because of a complete internet blockade nationwide.
Soon after the arrest, the country showed severe signs of the aftermath, and leaked videos and clips of the arrest and other riots happening started circulating openly on different Internet platforms. Just after a few hours so, Twitter was completely shut down and could not be accessed. YouTube and Instagram soon followed. And as if this wasn’t enough, the wifi and TV cable services and mobile broadband services were soon cut off too.
Citizens were left with no access to the world with more than half of the Internet being shut down so as an alternative they switched to different VPN services. But unfortunately, the primary digital payment systems in Pakistan witnessed a decline of approximately 50% in point-of-sale transactions. In addition, it is anticipated that the information technology (IT) industry may incur daily losses ranging from $3 to $4 million.
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With the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, which deems the arrest of Khan on May 9th as illegal and directs him to seek further guidance from the Islamabad High Court on Friday, there is hope that internet services may finally resume after more than 72 hours. However, Malhat Ubaid, the Director of Public Relations of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, stated that there have been no recent directives received from the Ministry of Interior regarding the restoration of internet services which suggests that the connections may not be reinstated in the near future.
According to Rana Sanaullah, the Federal Interior Ministry’s response to a query about the resumption of internet services throughout Pakistan, the decision to restore the services will be based on an analysis of reports from various intelligence agencies.
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