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| Image: Online |
In response to the impending polls' lack of its signature "bat" electoral logo, the PTI has nominated its candidates as independents using alternative symbols.
The party launched an online gateway on its website, insaf.pk, along with a "back-up site," pticandidates.com, in order to reduce potential voter confusion and to make election-related material easier to access.
The official Twitter accounts of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), interim IT Minister Umar Saif, and acting Information Minister Murtaza Solangi were tagged by the party's official X account.
Hello @murtazasolangi @umarsaif and @PTAofficialpk , can you explain why PTI’s websites are blocked in Pakistan?
— PTI (@PTIofficial) January 26, 2024
People are still getting symbol information from Imran Khan’s Facebook page so the question is what purpose is this block serving? https://t.co/JAQ3B3FfGd
"Can you explain why the PTI's websites have been banned in Pakistan?" the message asked, questioning the rationale for the censorship given that Imran Khan's Facebook page was still a source of symbol information.
Voters were earlier being misinformed about the PTI-backed candidates via a phony website that looked similar to one that was created by the party.
Several nationwide internet outages that have coincided with the PTI's online activities have happened in recent weeks. On January 20, internet services were disrupted one hour prior to the PTI's "virtual power show."
Recently, the PTI petitioned the highest court to overturn the internet bans, requesting that it acknowledge the interruption of well-known social media sites including X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
The party appealed to the Supreme Court to take notice of the internet shutdown after similar disruptions were recorded on December 17 and January 7.
The Sindh High Court banned the appropriate authorities from terminating internet service till the general elections on February 8 a day sooner.
The order was made in response to a petition against the last few days of "unconstitutional" internet outages throughout the nation submitted by human rights defender and lawyer Jibran Nasir, who is running as an independent for PS-110.
On January 22, acting Minister of Information Murtaza Solangi attributed the recent nationwide internet disruptions to "technical challenges," although they cautioned that there was no assurance such instances would not reoccur.
'Technical issues'
According to the PTA, there was a "technical failure" that caused the internet to go down.
In response to a query about internet failures and whether the government would take steps to stop them before the general elections on February 8, Solangi stated: "From what I understand, there are technical reasons behind the disruptions as well as some system installation issues."
PTA DG Pirzada stated, "You can face this for the next two to three months," attributing the interruptions to "technical difficulties" and system upgrades.