By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A senior judge on Monday ordered five government ministries and two regulatory bodies to explain, within two weeks, what they intend to do about children’s access to social media — the latest sign that Pakistan’s courts, not its parliament, have become the venue of choice for those pushing to rein in how minors use the internet.
Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfaraz Dogar of the Islamabad High Court took up the petition during a hearing that laid bare a regulatory vacuum: no law in Pakistan currently sets an age threshold for social media use, and no agency has been assigned to verify how old account holders actually are.
The case was brought by a petitioner named Waqas Nasir, represented by advocates Muhammad Jalal Haider and Yahya Farid Khawaja, who filed the petition earlier this month asking the court to compel the government to draft legislation and build an age-verification system for children under 16.
Dogar directed his notices to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Law and Justice, along with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, known as Pemra. All seven were given 15 days to respond. The judge also instructed a law officer attached to the court to see that the notices were actually carried out — a directive that suggested some skepticism about whether government offices would otherwise comply on schedule.
Much of the hearing turned on a simple, pointed exchange. Dogar asked whether Pemra had any law on the books addressing the issue. Haider told the court that the authority could act on individual complaints but had no standing legislation governing how children use social media. Pressed further on whether any law anywhere in the country addressed the matter specifically, the lawyer said no such law existed.
That admission went to the heart of the petitioners’ argument. Haider told the court that protecting children online was not merely good policy but a constitutional obligation, and he urged the government to bring Pakistan’s legal framework in line with what he described as international practice on the issue.
In the petition itself, Nasir asked the court to direct the government to build a comprehensive legal and regulatory structure for children online, arguing that minors face escalating exposure to cyberbullying, harassment, and harmful content with no corresponding legal protection. The petition called for a policy addressing children’s digital rights, privacy, and mental and physical well-being, and asked that specific obligations be placed on social media platforms themselves to shield young users.
The petition pointed to a broader international pattern, noting that a number of countries have already imposed age restrictions and safety requirements on children’s social media use, and argued that Pakistan risks falling behind an emerging global consensus. It cited the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, along with General Comment No. 25 — a UN interpretive document extending the treaty’s protections explicitly to children’s digital lives — to argue that safeguarding children’s welfare online is a legal duty for the state, not a discretionary policy choice.
The petition arrives against a backdrop of legislative activity, if not legislative action. Last month, the Punjab Assembly took up a resolution calling for a nationwide ban on social media accounts held by children under 16 without parental consent. That measure, introduced by provincial lawmaker Sarah Ahmad, asked the provincial government to press the federal government to draft comprehensive legislation regulating how children access social media and to strengthen online safety protections more broadly.
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