The country’s internet glitches were promised to be fixed by early October
The main reason for the ongoing internet slowdown these days is the failure of two of the seven international submarine cables that connect Pakistan internationally. PTA officials
The country’s internet outage is expected to be fixed by early October. According to media reports, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has attributed the slowness of the Internet to the failure of two submarine cables. Out of the seven international submarine cables connecting Pakistan internationally, two cables SMW4 and AAE1 are faulty.
It has been reported that the fault in the SMW-4 submarine cable is likely to be fixed by early October 2024, while submarine cable AAE-1 has been repaired and the repair of submarine cable AAE-1 will restore the internet. The current situation will improve.
It is being told that Internet and social media users in Pakistan are facing serious problems in their online activities, from e-commerce to electronic connections, citizens are suffering from severe issues everywhere. Expressing deep concern over the continuous obstacles in the flow of information, it has said that this is affecting people’s right to information, and freedom of expression as well as the right to do business. The right to communication is not an exception but a fundamental right. Therefore, the government should ensure public access to cheap and reliable internet. The issue of internet bottlenecks and slow speed has now gone from the headlines to several courts in the country, including Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar. And legal experts say that in Pakistan, the rights of digital users can only be protected by the courts.
While hearing a petition filed by journalist Hamid Mir regarding slow internet speed, Justice Amir Farooq of Islamabad High Court asked the lawyer of the Ministry of Information Technology about the slow internet. said that ‘the Ministry had not made any such policy’, on the other hand, when the PTA’s lawyer was asked, he said, ‘I do not know anything about it’, and the court expressed dismay at this. Expressing that “Such an application is under hearing in Lahore too, but no one is accepting responsibility there and only doing it here”.
Political observers in Pakistan say that the government’s plan to install a firewall to control social media users could have been more successful if it had consulted all stakeholders, and taken the public and parliament into confidence. Not facing criticism, stealthy actions by the government create suspicion, it confuses rather than solves problems, yet users are not even told that firewalls Where the matter has reached, what are the hurdles and how long will it take, a PTA official told DW on condition of anonymity that ‘the internet issue is taking a long time to get right. Many deadlines for installation of the new system may have passed.
