Islamabad-The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday directed the amicus curiae to submit their briefs regarding the notified social media rules.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah issued the directions while hearing identical petitions filed against the implementation of “Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards), Rules 2020.” The bench had earlier appointed Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), Sadaf Baig, Nighat Dad and Fariha Aziz to assist the court in the matter.
During the hearing, Usman Warraich Advocate adopted the stance that this bench had also appointed digital experts as amicus curiae so that their opinion should also be taken in this matter. He also informed the bench that in this regard, they have prepared some questions.
However, Justice Athar said that basically they can review only one question and it is whether the social media rules were contradicting with Article 19 of the Constitution or not. Then, the court said that if according to some international organisations this bench was against the freedom of expression then why not the cases should be transferred to any other bench to ensure transparency.
But, the lawyers opposed the proposal and said they have full trust in this bench. Later, the IHC bench deferred the hearing of the case till February 3 for further proceedings.
Previously, Additional Attorney General Qasim Wudood apprised the court that a committee headed by Federal Minister Shireen Mazari held meetings with more than 30 stakeholders including Facebook, Google, Twitter and others in this regard.
Showing resentment over the closure of the short-video sharing app, TikTok, the IHC chief justice said that where it does happen that an authority makes policies on ethics? He asked that why TikTok was banned and unblocked. He remarked that this is not a joke, they have to move forward by obeying the law of the land. He remarked that you cannot fight with technology and the world has advanced in the field of technology.
Justice Minallah asked the AAG if he is aware of the difference between contempt of court and freedom of speech? He added that the court has given its decision that criticising a judge is not a contempt of court.
He further said that the contempt of court is only when there is an attempt to influence the delivery of justice.
The Additional Attorney General also provided the details of the consultation with stakeholders. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had formed an advisory committee comprising Dr Shireen Mazari, Maleeka Bukhari and others and this committee had held 19 meetings with 30 stakeholders and each party was heard in full length. He further said that they also released the social media rules on the website.