The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Thursday directed the ministry of foreign affairs to submit report about the progress made till now on the court's to raise the issue at international level against Facebook for displaying blasphemous contents against Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the holy Quran.
The court adjourned hearing for indefinite period, directing ministry of foreign affairs to comply with the orders by registering protest against Facebook, in the united nations (UN) general assembly and platform of OIC to stop such blasphemous attempts in future. Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry passed the order on several identical petitions filed by Muhammad Azhar siddique advocate and others submitting that facebook and other internet websites be blocked in Pakistan and the federal government be directed to raise the issue at international level.
Deputy attorney general Naved Inayat Malik present in the court assured compliance would be made of the orders. He said representative of the foreign office present in the court said a detailed report no the matter, will be submitted on the next hearing. Meanwhile, a report was submitted to the court by ministry of information & technology on Thursday said from July last a hundreds of websites which contained anti- Islam or blasphemous material had been blocked.
The ministry said it was difficult in Pakistan to monitor displaying of blasphemous material on the internets in the absence of any mechanism, however a special crisis cell has been set up for the task. The ministry said by efforts of inter- ministerial committee a priest was stopped to hold 'Burn Quran Day" show on internet.
However, petitioner Muhammad Azhar Siddique contradicted the claims of the information and technology ministry saying that the blasphemous contents were still present on some websites. Azhar said the government did not raise the issue at the platform of general assembly by tabling resolution in UN as directed by the court in its order on May 21 2010.