The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) has issued a report detailing its assessment of the recently-concluded general election, expressing deep concerns over a decline in fairness scores compared to previous election cycles.
A nationwide disruption on social media platforms was experienced amid a virtual event organised by the PTI on Saturday, according to Internet monitor Netblocks.
“Confirmed: Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across Pakistan, including X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube,” the internet tracking agency said at 7:12pm.
It added that “the incident comes as persecuted opposition leader Imran Khan’s political party, PTI, launches its second virtual gathering.”
“We can confirm the nation-scale restriction of social media platforms across Pakistan,” said Netblocks Director Alp Toker.
He told AFP that the outage was “remarkably systematic” and “consistent with previous restrictions imposed during PTI events”.
Responding to the tracking agency’s confirmation, the PTI said: “Shame on the caretakers that are causing damage to Pakistanis only.”
Users also reported experiencing difficulties accessing social media platforms across Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.
A similar disruption occurred on January 7 as the PTI held a virtual fundraising telethon.
When asked for a comment, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told Dawn.com that all social media networks were active and the authority had not received any complaints.
The PTI has urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the suspension of internet service and blockage of social media websites during the party’s fundraising telethon.
In a statement, the PTI spokesperson had alleged that 240 million people were deprived of their basic rights by the suspension, which also resulted in financial losses for the country.
Telecom operators had also expressed concern over frequent internet outages “on political grounds”.
Questioned about the matter on Jan 10 by reporters, interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi had said that such technical problems had occurred in the past as well.
“The reasons were technical and had nothing to do with politics,” he had claimed and advised reporters to contact the PTA for more details.
Social media platforms were also similarly impacted on December 17 when the PTI held a virtual power show.
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