The government should have reversed the ban on YouTube through the same
ordinance that installed it, a Pakistani daily said on Saturday,
describing the ban as "a blot".
An editorial "Fixing YouTube" in The
Nation said that after being consigned to the annals of obscurity, "the
YouTube ban has once more been brought to the fore".
The Watan Party has moved the Supreme Court to reconsider the ban in light of the changing circumstance.
The
apex court has asked the federal government and Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to present their stances before the
court, "beginning the long process that may lead to the misguided ban
being reversed", said the daily.
The Supreme Court may be the best institution through which to peruse this issue.
The
editorial said: "Ideally the government, assuring that the immediate
crisis is over, should have reversed the ban through the same ordinance
it installed it with. The court's proceeding will drag on and appeals
and counter appeals are always a possibility."
"The government
will probably contest the challenge - especially given PTA's
conservative stance on the matter - when it really should be seeking to
cooperate," it added.
The daily observed that alternatives to
YouTube are present that "incorporate procedure that minimise the
chances of offensive material being posted..."
"Proxy server and
other applications also allow people to freely access the site,
rendering the ban ineffective for all but those who lack the computing
know-how. And that is the portion of the population that needs the site
the most."
It observed that the Pakistani government has gone to
great lengths to propagate the narrative of eliminating extremism in all
its forms and variations, "however the YouTube ban still exists as a
blot on the otherwise improving situation".
"The ban might have
been useful to curb the outpouring of religious unrest in the country,
but the longer it stays in place the more damage it is doing."
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