The Sindh High Court (SHC) conducted a hearing on petitions contesting the shutdown of social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, across Pakistan.
During the session, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) disclosed that it had retracted the notification for the platform’s suspension. Saad Siddiqui, representing PTA, confirmed to the court that the directive to block access to X had been annulled. The court then queried if this meant the platform was operational again.
Moeez Jafri, lawyer for the petitioners, indicated that despite the notification’s rescission, users remained blocked from accessing X. The court emphasized that, with no prevailing notification enforcing X’s closure, the platform should be accessible.
Another lawyer from PTA expressed unawareness regarding the specific retraction of the notification. The court noted the inconsistency presented by PTA’s use of different lawyers for the petitions, highlighting that this led to discrepancies in the information each lawyer possessed.
The court deferred the hearing of other related applications to a session scheduled two weeks later.
