ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will Monday (today) resume hearing in a petition moved against the banning of video-sharing platform TikTok.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah will conduct hearing of the matter wherein he had already directed the authorities to raise the issue of banning the video-sharing platform TikTok in the federal cabinet.
Previously, the IHC bench inquired from PTA’s lawyer whether the app was being currently used across the country. The counsel for PTA answered that about 99 per cent of the people are using the app in the country through a proxy.
At this, the court questioned that why was the authority so adamant on banning the app if they could not beat technology and also asked why the PTA wanted to cut the country off from the world.
“What happened to a previous court order regarding taking advice from the federal cabinet in this regard,” the IHC Chief Justice asked from the PTA lawyer. He asked that has the government given any policy?
When asked if the cabinet has directed for a ban on TikTok, the lawyer said that a meeting in this regard was held on policy issues, however, no directives of imposing a ban were issued.
The IHC CJ remarked that it appeared that in the absence of rules, the PTA has illegally banned the video-sharing application in the country. He warned that it could summon the PTA chairman if court orders are not implemented properly.
He added that the PTA should devise ways to deal with the technological challenges rather than banning the platforms.
In this matter, Muhammad Ashfaq Jutt senior vice-president of Pakistan Kickboxing Federation filed the petition through his counsel Mariam Farid Khawaja Advocate.
The petitioner filed the writ petition under Article 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan and cited Secretary Cabinet Division, Secretary Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and the PTA Chairman as respondents.
The petitioner contended that the ban on TikTok was ultra vires the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996, the fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, and the doctrine of Legitimate Expectation under the Law.