LAHORE  -  The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) decided on Sunday not to ban virtual private networks (VPNs). The PTA local chapter sources told APP that earlier the authority had warned its users to register their VPNs by Nov 30, after which unregistered connections would be blocked. They said the government decided not to ban VPNs, as the law ministry said the government did not have the legal authority to impose such a ban under the Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. The interior ministry had earlier requested for a ban, citing concerns about the use of VPNs by terrorists and access to pornographic content. However, the law ministry clarified that PECA allows blocking of specific online content.