As jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf resumed its march towards Islamabad on Monday, social media platforms are facing massive disruptions. According to Geo News, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other platforms are currently facing disruption. Earlier today, the Pakistani government had warned about internet curbs in several areas, especially where Khan's party had announced a protest march.
Although hours have passed, the cause of the outage remains unknown, and no official notification has been issued, raising questions about its timing. The government had confirmed that they planned on disrupting internet services in areas with security concerns, but there was no comment about social media platforms, reported Geo News.
Downdetector.com, a platform which tracks real-time overview of issues and outages of websites and social platforms — showed that users of Pakistan were facing disruptions in accessing WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and other sites. However, the disruptions were not only restricted to social platforms, but internet was affected as well.
Why did Imran Khan call for protest in Pakistan?
The 72-year-old jailed former premier issued a "final call" on November 13 for nationwide protests on November 24, denouncing what he termed as the stolen mandate, the unjust arrests of people and the passage of the 26th amendment, which he said has strengthened a “dictatorial regime”. Led by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan's wife Bushra Bibi, the marchers began their journey from the devastated province on Sunday with the mission to reach the capital but faced obstacles on the roads.
The authorities had blocked the highways by placing shipping containers but the protestors accompanied by lifting equipment and other heavy machines worked their way by removing hurdles, but it skittled their speed and plans. After a stopover for the night at Haro in the Attock district of Punjab, the party resumed its journey with the mission to reach the capital by midday today.
Pakistani government imposes Section 144
The government already banned rallies by imposing Section 144, a colonial-era law used to outlaw political activities, as a high-level delegation from Belarus was visiting Pakistan. A high-level delegation from Belarus, led by Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzinkov and including eight ministers and 43 business leaders, arrived in Islamabad on Sunday ahead of President Alexander Lukashenko’s official visit on Monday.
The president would hold discussions with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the country’s Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir. It is expected that important agreements would be signed to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries during the visit.
“Well-thought out conspiracy” against the country: Government
While Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in a statement questioned PTI’s repeated calls for strikes, terming them a “well-thought out conspiracy” against the country. He regretted that the party always seemed to call for a protest at a time when global figures were visiting Pakistan, whether it be the Chinese premier’s visit, the SCO summit or other occasions. But it all fell on deaf ears as the PTI leader stuck with the demand while saying that only Imran Khan called off the protest.
“We must advance and not turn back until Imran Khan is released,” CM Gandapur said in an address to the crowd on Sunday.
Bibi was also with the crowd against early announcements that she would not join the protest. She on Sunday also briefly addressed the supporters on the way from her car, showing frustration with the delay. "Time is being wasted," she said, using a microphone. "Stay in your vehicles so we can reach there quickly."
(With inputs from agency)
