Pakistan

With only a half a million Internet users, Pakistan is quite behind with new information technology. This is mainly because of the country's large size and low level of economic development, including only a few million private phone lines, mostly in big cities. Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government appears to favour its growth, even though on the day he seized power, 12 October 1999, the army cut off all Internet connections for several hours, and in July 2002, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) tried to force cybercafés owners to record the names of their customers. Gen. Musharraf says his government has invested more than 100 million euros in communications and sharply reduced the cost of connections and services since 1999. Pakistan has since launched a programme to boost digital technology, the Information Technology and Telecom Policy. Slow and difficult development This policy has led the government to cut Internet connection costs and invest in telecommunications infrastructure, while putting the Internet under the direct supervision of the PTA. The state's monopoly in the sector ended in December 2001 but big Internet operators such as AOL are reluctant to invest in a country where scant profits are to be made. For the time being, Pakistanis are enthusiastically using cybercafés, which are everywhere in the cities. In Peshawar, a new one opens nearly every day. Use of the Internet during the Pearl case The Daniel Pearl murder showed how the Internet can exacerbate rising tensions in Pakistan. The Musharraf government supported the Taliban in Afghanistan until the 11 September attacks and has to cope with Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan itself. The Internet can also be used by these extremists to their advantage. The kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl on 23 January 2002 and his murder by a Pakistani fundamentalist group was an example. The kidnappers made great use of the Internet, logging on with their personal computers and in cybercafés to announce the kidnapping, put out political statements and generally publicise their crime. The case could perhaps hamper growth of the Internet in Pakistan. The US government regularly complains about how Al-Qaeda militants use the Internet, often from Pakistan, to put out their messages, organise themselves and launch operations. In January 2003, the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) was put in charge of fighting cybercrime and cyber-terrorism and with US money and staff support, the government set up a system of surveillance of the Internet. Until then, Pakistan police had only three officers trained in combating cybercrime. The authorities have not said whether the FIA will monitor e-mail messages. Military regime targets South Asia Tribune site The information ministry indicated in a special announcement on 2 November 2002 that newspapers reproducing articles from the Washington-based South Asia Tribune website (www.satribune.com) could be prosecuted under a new libel law that came into effect a month earlier and provides for up to three months in jail, a fine of about 50,000 rupees (850 euros) and an obligatory public apology by those found guilty. The South Asia Tribune was founded in July 2002 by Shaheen Sebhai, a former senior editor of the daily The News, who has been exiled in the United States since March 2002. The website has reported several corruption and human rights scandals involving the government and gets about 100,000 visitors a month. Pakistani papers have also reprinted material from it. The information ministry announcement did not mention Sebhai or his website by name, simply referring to a Pakistani journalist it said had gone into voluntary exile and launched a campaign to defame the government and its officials. Since he has been in exile, Sebhai has been targeted by the government. An army employee filed a complaint against him for a burglary supposedly committed in February 2001 and several of his friends were arrested and held several weeks in Islamabad in connection with it. Journalist colleagues have been threatened by intelligence agents for publicly defending him. Attempts to control the Internet The South Asia Tribune site reported in November 2002 that the PTA had in July that year ordered ISPs and cybercafé owners to keep a record of the names, connection times, numbers called and computer identities of their customers. Senior PTA official Col. Nayyar Hassan said the order to ISPs to keep this data for a month was justified by the rise in cybercrime. Cybercafé owners were required to keep such records for two weeks. The South Asia Tribune said the PTA had issued a reminder in August that the data should collected and kept. However, Col. Hassan himself admitted the order was being disregarded. The Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) announced on 2 April 2003 that 400 new sites with "indecent" content had been added to an earlier list of 100 banned websites and asked Internet operators to block access to them. ISPs said the move would slow down Internet access. A senior PTCL official, Zahir Khan, said on 6 April that access to nearly 1,800 pornographic sites had been banned and that the PTCL was thinking of importing software to make it easier to do. Also targeted were "anti-Islamic" and "blasphemous" sites. The PTCL admitted the blocking would temporarily slow down Internet navigation but said it was necessary because of what it called the great threat to society from such sites. Mairajul Huda, a leader of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, welcomed the moves and said the electronic media had to be reformed to bring them into line with the country's culture and religion so young people would not be tempted by such evil. Cyberwar between India and Pakistan The Pakistani government set up a special interministerial committee in May 2003 to counter increasing attacks on government websites by Indian hackers who were making them inaccessible. Information technology minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said that if the attackers were identified, the government would take the matter to the relevant international authorities to seek their punishment. The previous month, he had said the government was thinking of hiring its own hackers to fight the attacks. The daily paper The News said the government's working group on Internet security was responsible for protecting the country's cyber-security. Links: The US-based South Asia Tribune The country's main ISP The Pakistan Press Foundation The major daily Dawn The Daily Times