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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Internet cafes to be regularized in Punjab


Internet Cafe License, net Cafe regulation in PunjabThe government of Punjab has taken the decision to regulate all the internet cafes in the province reports a new channel. After this all the existing internet cafes will have to get a license in order to continue their business. Besides, the new internet cafes will also require a license from the Government of Punjab.
The complaints about easy access to porn on internet in Pakistan have become frequent. Recently, the issue of access to porn on internet was discussed in a talk show in which students of various education institutions also participated. Four prominent personalities Sameena Khawar Hayat (Member of Punjab Assembly), Wassi Shah(Actor/Scholar), Sania Saeed (Actress/Social Worker) and Muneeb Farooq(TV Anchor) were the dignitaries to do a debate on this issue in the presence of many students.
All these four participants debated on the issue from two different angles. Sameena Khawar Hayat and Wassi Shah were of the views that internet was polluting the moral values of our youth through providing easy access to the blue films and pornography. Whereas, Sania Saeed and Muneeb Farooq differed with the biased views of Sameena and Wassi, they agreed upon that internet provides easy access to porn but they also highlighted the importance of internet in the modern age. So they were of the view that the issue of easy access to porn on internet is the problem and not the internet itself.
This point was also noted that porn is accessed more in internet cafes as compared to homes because the owners of internet cafes provide safe places and free hand to their customers in order to expand their businesses (illegal activity). But one of the students argued that beside this, internet also provide cheap way of communication and easy access to information to those who cannot afford to own computers.  From this point, Sameena Khawar Hayat promised to raise the issue of internet cafes’ regularization in the Punjab Assembly. Chief Minister Punjab has therefore passed his orders for the regularization of internet cafes in Punjab.
With no doubt it is a good move taken by the Government of Punjab but the main responsibility comes on the shoulders of telecom watchdog Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) which has been letting public to access porn easily. Recently, it had issued a list of banned words in text messaging besides issuing the list of porn sites and access to them was going to be banned in Pakistan. Its orders were immediately followed by the small ISPs like Qubee, Wateen and Wi-Tribe weeks before the deadline but the big fish has not implemented the orders and blocked those sites even now. Therefore the small ISPs have recently filed a complaint against the big fish in court due to its actions against the rules of land. All this shows that PTA has been slow to react in every issue.
Anyway, the move of CM Punjab about the regularization of internet cafes is a very good move and hopefully it will leave good impacts on our society.

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