Pakistan banned BlackBerry services, and blocked over 1000 websites

BlackBerry services in Pakistan were being blocked by PTA, Pakistan Telecom Authority. PTA has asked all the telecom companies in Pakistan to halt the BlackBerry services. Pakistan has banned BlackBerry services just to make sure they block all the ways that leads to the banned sites like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and lately Twitter.

This is one of the major drives initiated by Pakistan against websites which hosted anti-Islamic content. This is all happened when people from all parts of the Pakistan protested against ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day’ page in Facebook. As per the issued rule, telecom companies can’t resume BlackBerry services until they get the further notice from PTA.

BlackBerry ban in Pakistan is the latest that added to the list. PTA found out that there is way to log into Facebook and YouTube from BlackBerry phones and made sure it cut the every possible way to stop Facebook and other sites opening up in Pakistan. PTA, which controls and regulates the telecom and broadband companies in Pakistan, has asked all the companies to shutdown the BlackBerry services in Pakistan.

This website blocking drive was initiated by Pakistan on Lahore court’s order. ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day’ page is the reason behind the Pakistan’s government decision to ban these sites. There is huge protest from public of Pakistan over the controversial Facebook page. Hundreds of students from Pakistan were seen protesting against Facebook earlier this week.

Not just the students, but the different educated sections of Pakistan, including the religious groups protested against Facebook. Finally, the Lahore government looked into this issue and issued ban on Facebook and other social networking sites which contains anti Islamic content.

BlackBerry ban is also a part of the Lahore court’s decision. However, some experienced bloggers from Pakistan considered this ban on BlackBerry services as ‘unnecessary’. There are some sections of people in Pakistan who are not happy with ban on sites like YouTube and Twitter.

Most of them are supported ban against Facebook, but showed their dissent over the government’s decision to block sites like Twitter and Flickr. While the religious Muslims in the country welcomed the Lahore court decision.

BlackBerry users will have their services blocked for some more time. The blocking period might last till the end of the month, or can go further down. Including BlackBerry services, Pakistan has blocked 800 different web pages and sites that contain blasphemous content.