Pak might further delay YouTube ban upliftment amid reports of change in IT ministry

Pakistan might reportedly delay uplifting the YouTube ban, even as it gets the missing filters to block offensive content online, after the Information Technology (IT) secretary was changed last week.

New IT secretary, Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar, who will chair the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) meeting on whether to remove or not remove the ban on YouTube, has said that he needs little time to get acquainted with the issue, The Express Tribune reports.

Earlier, State Minister for IT Anusha Rehman had revealed on August 22 that Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) helped to provide filters through which over 4,000 URLs containing blasphemous content were blocked.

The reports revealed that the test run of filters did yield results and the ministry was hopeful to convene the IMC meeting within a week.

The ministry spokesperson Kamran Ali Khan, however, said that the test run was still going on and the IMC meeting would be convened once there were desirable results.

YouTube was blocked in September 2012 after the controversial film 'Innocence of Muslims' went viral in Pakistan.

According to the report, the IT ministry has prepared a proposal for the committee to setup a complaint cell for vigilance and monitoring of blasphemous and pornographic content on the internet

The IMC has the mandate to define anti-state, blasphemous and pornographic content on internet and issue directives to the PTA to block access to such information.