On Thursday, the day the country holds legislative elections, authorities suspended mobile internet in Pakistan. The digital sector watchdog called the measure undemocratic.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry announced this Thursday that mobile phone services have been “temporarily suspended” due to security reasons, a day after two attacks by the Islamic State (IS) group killed 28 people in the southern province of Balochistan.
“Security measures are necessary to maintain law and order and combat any potential threats,” a Pakistani ministry spokesman said.
Netblocks, an organization that monitors computer security and internet governance, said its data showed “outages on the mobile internet”, confirming information provided by many users who reported outages.
“The current internet shutdown is one of the most severe and widespread we have ever seen in any country,” Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, told AFP.
“This practice is fundamentally undemocratic and is known to hamper the work of independent election observers and cause irregularities in the electoral process,” he added.
The interim government has repeatedly stated that there will be no interruptions in mobile communications on election day.
“This is an attack on the democratic rights of Pakistanis,” said Nighat Dad, head of the Digital Rights Foundation, a digital rights non-governmental organization (NGO).
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called for the restoration of mobile phone services and said his party would challenge the government’s decision in court.
Pakistani voters began voting today after nearly two years of instability in an election marked by polarization and rising gun violence across much of the country.
Voting centers for Pakistan’s general elections opened at 8:00 am (3:00 am in Lisbon) and are scheduled to close at 5:00 pm (12:00 pm in Lisbon), the Election Commission of Pakistan said, which plans to begin counting votes. then.
According to the Election Commission, more than 700,000 security personnel, both military and civilian, have been deployed across the country to deal with any untoward situation.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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