Pakistani internet users—who were already struggling due to frequent outages—were treated to yet another gloomy day on January 20th. The blackout was attributed to ongoing system upgrades by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which provided technical grounds. But the “2 to 3 months” schedule that was initially suggested just made people’s fears worse.
News Conference on Pakistani Internet Outages
In a news conference full with doubt, Director General Ahmed Shamim Pirzada was accompanied by FIA Cybercrime Director of Operations Waqaruddin Syed and Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi.
The disruption coincided with a political party’s pre-announced internet event, which fueled rumors of intentional throttling.
A similar pattern of disruptions on December 17 and January 7 strengthened this suspicion.
Minister Solangi acknowledged the potential for more difficulties but reiterated the explanation of a technological malfunction.
This bland promise did little to allay popular fears, especially in light of the strange timing of blackouts.
Public skepticism was only stoked by the PTA’s earlier statement following the outage on January 20th, which cited a “technical fault”.
The technologically literate people of Pakistan were visibly incensed at the seeming lack of openness and the protracted settlement process.
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