Top 5 technologically and logically illiterate bozos of the day (in ascending order):
5. Muhammad Sidiq / Siddique, petitioner of writ no. 3246/2010 in the Lahore High Court
4. Latifur Rehman, advocate for Muhammad Sidiq / Siddique
3. Muhammad Hussain Azad, Deputy Attorney General Punjab
2. Aslam Dhakkar, President High Court Bar Association Bahawalpur
1. Justice Mazher Iqbal Sidhu, Judge Lahore High Court
As evidence I present the following news item from the front page of The News today:
LHC orders blocking of Google, Yahoo, 7 other sites
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
"BAHAWALPUR: The Lahore High Court has directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to immediately block nine websites for publishing and promoting sacrilegious material, and ordered the PTA chairman to appear in the court on June 28, 2010 along with all relevant material.
Justice Mazher Iqbal Sidhu of the LHC Bahawalpur Bench, while hearing a write petition on Tuesday, ordered blocking of nine websites including Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, YouTube, Google, Islam Exposed, In The Name Of Allah, Amazon and Bing.
A citizen, Muhammad Sidiq, filed a writ petition No. 3246/2010 in the LHC, seeking a ban on the websites for publishing blasphemous materials and twisting the facts and figure of Holy Quran. Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Hussain Azad also endorsed the viewpoint of the petitioner and demanded blocking of these websites.
Counsel for the petitioner, Latif-ur-Rehman Advocate presented CDs and other evidence in the court, showing that the said websites were publishing sacrilegious material. Later, President High Court Bar Aslam Dhakkar said the court has given a historic decision. He said the legal fraternity would observe a complete strike in Bahawalpur on Wednesday (today) against publication of such material by these websites. He said a meeting would also discuss the situation today."
That's right. It seems the Lahore High Court has nothing better to do these days than to entertain frivolous applications and to pass even more frivolous judgements on them. Is it the job of the judiciary to be constantly policing the worldwide internet (remember the Facebook fiasco!)??? Even more pertinently, is it the job of judges who obviously have not even the slightest knowledge of technological matters - after all five of the sites drawing the judge's umbrage are search engines while one is an email service provider and another an online store - to be pronouncing orders about them? Should the Chief Justice not take suo moto action against such in his own ranks who make Jamshed Dasti look like the most sagacious man around?
And what can one say about the cheerleading lawyers and officials whose idea of 'history' is how many cups of doodh pati they had in the bar room that afternoon. Morons the lot of them. And all fit cases for being put in the lunatic asylum where they enact as many "historic judgements" as they want.
::: IMPORTANT CAVEAT:::
As reader Huma Imtiaz has pointed out in the comments, the Express Tribune has a different take on the story. According to their story, the bench has NOT called for the immediate blocking of the aforementioned sites and has only asked for the Ministry of Information officials to appear on June 28 to decide about the matter. If so, my remarks against the judge - based on The News' reporting - may have been premature and wrong and I withdraw them with apologies.
I still do think the petition itself is frivolous and should never have been entertained. And my opinion of the rest, based on their reported stances in The News, still stands.
::: UPDATE THURSDAY 24 JUNE :::
So it would seem that The News' story was indeed correct. Dawn's story, appearing today, seems to corroborate the fact that the judge has indeed passed an order blocking the sites, though the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has not yet complied. The lawyers under the able leadership of Moron
"The resolution criticised the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for not taking prompt action, urging the authorities concerned to ‘realise their responsibilities in this connection’. The resolution further warned PTA that in future if it failed to take action on its own against such websites, the bar would move the high court against the authority."
I take back all my caveats about the judge. You know, I've always suspected that these compulsory black coats in the stifling heat of places like Bahawalpur are liable to screw up people's brains. But must we endure the repercussions of their battles with climatically challenged wardrobes?
Express Tribune has a different story up, according to which the fate of the websites is supposed to be decided on June 28:
ReplyDeletehttp://tribune.com.pk/story/23217/pakistan-may-ban-yahoo-google-msn/
There's a big difference between asking PTA to block the websites and summoning Ministry of Information officials. Will the real news story please stand up?
-H
@Huma Imtiaz: Thank you for pointing that out. I had thought later I should have added a caveat and was hoping The News story did not turn out to be simply wrong. Oops. I guess I should add a word of caution to the post, in relation to the judge at least.
ReplyDeleteI
this is scary.....what on earth they want.....they will end up blocking the whole www one day......shoooot.........they want us to watch Madni channel?????
ReplyDeleteufff...... these judges are fuckin Dic* Head. I supported the Judicial moment but not for these egghead judges.
ReplyDeleteIts like banning Pen & Ink.
My head was about to explode on reading this news. After drinking few liters of water and a telenol, I have come to the conclusion that the main players in judiciary in pakistan are not up to speed on matters when it comes to the internet. Pakistan software board and ministry of IT need to give them a detailed presentation along the lines:
ReplyDelete1) Internet is not a website, it's a network of gazillions of computers on this frigging planet.
2) Most of these websites are search engines which just like a group of clerks (talk with them in their own language) help to search and organize information. They are not the ones producing objectionable material. 3) It's not technologically possible in this day and age to put a tap on information or control it in anyway. 4)So, gentlemen please shut the fuck up and do some real work for a change (hint: arrange for a gang rape on dasti)
that's end of my rant. thank you