SHC revokes ban on Pakistan’s TikTok

Karachi: After the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) assured the court that the petitioner’s complaint will be resolved by Monday, the Sindh High Court (SHC) lifted the ban on TikTok on Friday.

After a citizen dissatisfied with the “immoral and obscene” behavior on the mobile app submitted a petition, the SHC ordered PTA to suspend the service of the video-sharing website on June 28.

At today’s hearing, PTA notified the court that it had blocked access to the application on June 30.

It has asked the court to review its decision and allow it to resume services.

The PTA lawyer assured the court that it will expedite the processing of the petitioner’s request and make a ruling before July 5.

After hearing the argument, SHC withdrew the suspension order and instructed PTA to make a decision on the matter before then.

The hearing was subsequently postponed to next Monday.

It is worth mentioning that TikTok was blocked for the third time in the past 12 months due to content shared on the mobile app.

As early as April, the Peshawar High Court banned it for the same reason. PTA also took action against TikTok in October and blocked access to it.

Why did SHC suspend TikTok again?

SHC’s ruling was made during a hearing on Monday’s petition to suspend the application. The court issued a notice to the Pakistani Minister of Justice and instructed him to comply with the order and suspend the application.

The petitioner’s lawyer stated his argument in court that the Peshawar High Court had earlier banned TikTok because some of the videos uploaded on the platform were “immoral and contrary to Islamic teachings”.

The lawyer has stated that his client had contacted the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) before moving the court, but PTA did not do anything in this regard.

Favard Grand Slam Ban

After the SHC banned the app, Fawad Chaudhry, the Minister of Information, slammed the decision to ban TikTok from spreading across Pakistan before July 8, calling it “judicial radicalism.”

Chowdhury warned on Twitter that if judicial reform is not carried out, Pakistan will face the consequences.

“If there is no judicial reform, Pakistan will never get out of the economic crisis,” he said on Twitter.

“After reading yesterday’s judgment on the suspension of TikTok and the removal of the president of NBP, I was confused and couldn’t help wondering: What is our court doing?” the Minister of Information asked.

Chowdhury pointed out that Pakistan has suffered losses worth billions of dollars due to “judicial radicalism.”