Islamabad police has registered an FIR against the famous social networking website facebook after having directed by Additional Session Judge.
According to express tribune, Namoos-e-Risalat Lawyers Forum filed an application in the court of Additional Session Judge – Kamran Basharat Mufti seeking directions for registering case against Facebook for displaying “blasphemous” material online. The court directed the Margala Police accordingly which registered the case under sections 295-A and 298-A of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
One of the lawyers from the Forum revealed that he and his colleagues had requested Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on in July 2011 that Facebook and other such sites were displaying blasphemous content that was being uploaded from Pakistan. Authority ignored the request and did not take action. Later, Islamabad District Bar filed an application for registering the case but local police did not pay attention as well.
Eventually, Namoos-e-Risalat Lawyers Forum filed complaint in the court of Kamran Basharat Mufti. There were three applications in total, first one was about Facebook, second was against the Payam TV for telecasting and distributing a movie about prophet Hazrat Yousaf and third one was against US embassy in Islamabad for organizing a gathering of lesbians and gays in Islamabad.
The court gave orders against the Facebook and Payam TV while turned down the third application.
It would be interesting to see how this FIR will affect the usage of Facebook in Pakistan as the management of social networking site is not located in Pakistan. Only way to contact them is through email or fax.
Analysts believe that FIR can somehow later compel the watch dog PTA to issue directions for banning the Facebook again in Pakistan.
