Question:

Pakistan high court cancelled the petition to ban Wikileaks.

by Guest22181130 | 1 year, 6 month(s) ago

Lahore high court cancelled the petition filed by the Arif Gondal for the ban of wikileaks website in Pakistan. I read in a news article that, Gondal in his petition termed the leakage of secret information by WikiLeaks (a not-for-profit media organization) a conspiracy to create a rift among Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim and Western countries. Requesting the court to issue orders for imposing a ban on the website, the petitioner argued that since Pakistan had good bilateral relations with a number of countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, the leakage of secret information would adversely affect these ties. LHC’s Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed dismissed the petition, calling it non-maintainable. If someone has anything to share related to this topic he is more than welcome to share here.

Tags: ban, cancelled, Court, Pakistan, Petition, wikileaks

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Mitchel

Lahore High Court has rejected the petition to block the access to wikileaks website. The petition was filed by Arif Gondal and it was heard in the respected court of Mr. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed. The court appeal mentioned that this website was leaking the secret information which could have a deteriorating effect on the foreign relations of Pakistan and in general could create chaos in the public. However, the court decided not to put a ban on the said website because according to the court decision wikileaks is operational in more than 170 countries and hence it is not possible to put a ban on its operations. Also court mentioned that was the applicant afraid of the truth coming out in public.

This court decision would be a very well-liked decision among the general public and among the people who favor the freedom of speech in the country. This is another step of the court which reflects the desire of Pakistan (at least at media front) to walk with international community. But let’s not drifted away from reality with this thought, if some of you may remember a few months’ back same courts of Pakistan banned the operations of popular social network, Facebook, in Pakistan which were acted upon by PTA and the operations remained suspended for a month in Pakistan. So, the argument that since Wikileaks operates in many countries and hence it is not possible to stop its operations is a weak argument by the court because Facebook operates in more countries than Wikileaks.

Here we may think that the court decisions are being driven by public opinion which may seems true in the case of Facebook. But the matter of the fact is that this is not the complete truth. As far as I can think, such decisions by the court are making things harder only for the present government (of which I am also not a big fan). However, even if the court decisions are driven by the pressure of the public opinion, that too is not a good sign for the credibility of the courts. The courts are there to work under the law of Pakistan and its constitution and not under the public opinion.

Report (0) (0) | 1 year, 3 month(s) ago