On account of the spread of 'blasphemous' images online, an Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge has called for a ban on social media sites in Pakistan.
Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has come up with a suggestion that people found to have posted blasphemous content online must have their names added to the Exit Control List, thereby prohibiting them from leaving the country.
“I will go to every extent to bring this case to its logical end and if needed I will even ban social media in Pakistan,” he is reported to have said.
Claiming to have had lost his sleep since seeing the offensive content, Justice Siddiqui also compared the blasphemers to terrorists.
The blasphemous pages are now being removed with the help of Facebook officials.
It is to be noted that blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad is punishable by death in Pakistan. The country has a number of religious offences listed in its penal code, including “wounding religious feelings”, “derogatory remarks” and “defiling the Quran”.
Justice Siddiqui has also appealed for the support of Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, asking him to “take some steps in his own supervision to eliminate the evil, even at the cost of blocking the entirety [of] social media.”
The case was filed by Salman Shahid (son-in-law of Maulana Abdul Aziz, of Lal Masjid), who alleged that five bloggers, Salman Haider, Ahmed Waqas Goraya, Asim Saeed, Ahmed Raza Naseer and Samar Abbas, were spreading blasphemous content through pages on social networks.
Over 2,000 people are currently rallying in Islamabad, calling for the government to take stern action.
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