By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani officials told lawmakers on Thursday that reports of the internet firewall being shut down ahead of next month’s 5G spectrum auction were incorrect, insisting the country’s Web Monitoring System is still fully running and has caused no disruption to services.
The clarification came during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology. At the outset, committee chairman Syed Aminul Haque drew attention to media reports about the firewall. Lawmaker Sadiq Memon then pressed for a briefing on the system, its value to the country and the distinction between a general internet firewall and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s Web Monitoring System.
Information Technology Secretary Zarar Hashim Khan directly rejected any notion that the setup had been dismantled. “The PTA’s WMS is fully operational,” Khan said, adding that neither a firewall nor the WMS had caused any delay in internet services. PTA Chairman Hafeezur Rehman then took the floor and said the word “firewall” is simply colloquial shorthand for the WMS, which has been in place in Pakistan since 2006. “This system has been upgraded four times, with the most recent upgrade carried out in 2023,” he said.
Rehman explained that, like any firewall, the WMS is designed to secure the country’s digital connectivity. It was originally installed to eradicate grey traffic in telephony, block social media platforms and take down illegal websites operating within Pakistan’s jurisdiction. “Our digital borders must also be protected,” the PTA chairman said. He added that the system had helped thwart cyberattacks originating from India during periods of heightened tension between the two countries.
Blocks on social media platforms, he stressed, occur only on specific directives from the government or court orders. Such restrictions have been imposed seven times so far. “But this does not mean that the internet speeds experience a slowdown or anything else happens due to the WMS,” he added. The committee was told that regulatory mechanisms remain in place to safeguard national cyber infrastructure while ensuring uninterrupted telecom services, especially in the run-up to the 5G rollout.
Rehman also briefed lawmakers on preparations for the 5G spectrum auction scheduled for March 10. All three telecom operators in the country — Jazz, Ufone and Zong — have expressed their intention to participate, he said. In the past 12 years Pakistan has conducted four spectrum auctions and released a total of 69 megahertz, according to Rehman. The upcoming sale will offer 597 MHz, with each participant required to secure a minimum of 100 MHz. He said the additional spectrum would not only pave the way for 5G services but also help expand and improve 4G coverage across Pakistan.
Separately, a senior official in the IT ministry told Dawn that the WMS was never designed to target individual social media accounts. Pointing to the continued operation of the X account belonging to PTI founder Imran Khan while the former prime minister was in prison, the official asked: “If the WMS could stop individual accounts, why did the government wait so long and finally approach the X management to block this account?”
The remarks come amid persistent speculation on social media that authorities had quietly switched off the so-called firewall to clear the way for the 5G auction. Last August, after months of public complaints linking connectivity problems to an unacknowledged monitoring system, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja confirmed for the first time that the government was upgrading its “web management system” to deal with cybersecurity threats. Until then, the ministry and the PTA had either denied any role in the slowdowns or blamed telecom operators and Meta for issues ranging from sluggish browsing to intermittent WhatsApp outages on mobile data.
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