PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday slammed internet slowdowns and restrictions in the country, calling them \u201canother effort to control and censor citizens\u201d amid his party\u2019s tensions with the government. In recent months, users have experienced sluggish speeds, difficulty downloading media on WhatsApp, and intermittent connectivity issues. Digital analysts say the government has been testing a \u201cfirewall\u201d that monitors some platforms and gives the power to block content, like photos or videos of rallies shared on WhatsApp. The government has said a \u2018web management system\u2019 was being updated for increased cyber security. Meanwhile, the relationship between the PPP and the federal government has grown rocky, as senior party officials expre\u00adssed a \u201clack of confidence\u201d in the federal government in December. In parliament on December 18, PPP MNA Abdul Qadir Patel expressed strong reservations about the ongoing internet situation in the country, including the ban on X and the firewall. The next day, senior PPP leader Naveed Qamar among other PPP lawmakers walked out of a parliament session in protest of the continued \u201cinsulting\u201d absence of federal ministers from proceedings. Despite the party leaders\u2019 reservations, Bilawal has urged them to continue engaging with the PML-N government. However, addressing the convocation ceremony at Sindh University in Jamshoro today, Bilawal said the issue related to internet restrictions needed to be addressed urgently. \u201cOur infrastructure used to be roads, highways motorways,\u201d he said. \u201cIn today\u2019s age, I believe it\u2019s our bandwidth, our fibre optic cable, our wireless internet services. \u201cIn the past, there were attempts to control and censor people as there are now,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis is proof that you are strong and that they fear you because they do not want you to exercise your rights through the internet.\u201d The PPP chairman mentioned that the ban on student unions was \u201canother example of how they fear you\u201d. Bilawal emphasised that the youth needed to fight for their rights and make their demands known. \u201cWe will need to fight for our rights and spread awareness,\u201d he said. \u201cHistory is witness that when a people gets rights, they are taken away by the state.\u201d The PPP chairman said that there needed to be a \u201cdigital bill of rights\u201d, adding that the youth and students of this country must come together and write it. \u201cFor our time, we need to make efforts for a digital bill of rights,\u201d he said. \u201cIt must be written by the students and youth to make their rights known, not by old politicians in Islamabad who do not understand the internet because they do not use it. \u201cIt (restricting the internet and VPNs) has no impact on them but it hurts you,\u201d Bilawal emphasised. \u201cOnce a bill is written, we will make a consensus-based document and I will bring it before parliament.\u201d Bilawal said that in today\u2019s world, \u201caffordable \u2026 equitable access\u201d to high-speed internet should be a \u201cfundamental human right\u201d, adding that there should be strict protocols to counter misinformation and ensure safety online. Addressing the participants he said, \u201cYou probably know more about this than I do. Please, send suggestions and pointers to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday slammed internet slowdowns and restrictions in the country, calling them \u201canother effort to control and censor citizens\u201d amid…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21877,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}